Overview
- The sentences were handed down on Monday after Teesside Crown Court concluded prosecutions that ended with guilty pleas by Max Cashman and Lee Bradshaw and a jury conviction of Declan Moor.
- Prosecutors say the 31-year-old victim, Aiden Matthews, was lured into a Norton alley on New Year’s Eve 2025 and died three days later from a fractured skull and a slow brain bleed.
- Judge Francis Laird found Moor organised the meeting that brought Matthews to the alley while the court said Cashman delivered the blow that caused the fatal injuries.
- CCTV footage, mobile phone records and witness accounts were used to show the three men met before and after the assault and to establish the sequence of events.
- The case highlights violence linked to small drug debts and the human cost for Matthews’ family who described the death as devastating while two defendants received reduced terms for early guilty pleas.