Man who gave gang evidence jailed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/hampshire/6638797.stm Version 0 of 1. A teenager who murdered a man falsely accused of being a paedophile but later gave evidence against his friends has been jailed for at least eight years. Lewis Hoare, now 19, was one of four who attacked Brian Kitching, 68, on Southsea seafront in September 2005. Last week, three people were found guilty of Mr Kitching's murder. On Wednesday, Winchester Crown Court was told Hoare, from Portsmouth, had admitted his guilt and gave "clear and important evidence" against the gang. Rock garden attack Sentencing Hoare to a mandatory life sentence with an eight-year tariff, Mrs Justice Dobbs, told him: "Your undoubted courage in giving evidence against your co-defendants deserves a significant reduction in your sentence. "You did not try to minimise your role in this incident. You were fully aware of the gravity of what you did." There was no evidence at all that Mr Kitching was a paedophile Justice Dobbs said that because of the aggravating features of the case, Hoare would normally have had to serve at least 16 years before he was eligible for parole. But she said his early plea and the evidence - together with the fact that she accepted he had not intended to kill Mr Kitching - meant she had halved this tariff. Former Royal Navy rating Mr Kitching, who was walking through a rock garden when the gang struck unprovoked, died from his injuries six months after the attack. Witnesses said he had been kicked by the drunken gang "like a football". Washed off blood Amie Bartholomew, then 18 and pregnant, started the attack when she shouted to Mr Kitching he was a "dirty paedophile" and punched him. Melissa Healy, who was 16 at the time, Paul Dewar, then 25, and Hoare, then 18, all joined in the attack, repeatedly punching and kicking his head, face and body. The four then washed off the blood in the sea before they were arrested. From left: Healy, Dewar and Bartholomew were jailed for life Bartholomew and Healy, from Portsmouth, and Dewar, from Taunton, Somerset, were found guilty of murdering Mr Kitching and sentenced to life imprisonment. Dewar was told he would serve a minimum of 16 years. Bartholomew was told she would serve a minimum of 15 years and Healy was told she would serve a minimum of 10 years. The court also heard that the group had then attacked another man on the seafront straight after beating up Mr Kitching. Hoare was sentenced to three months for this attack to run concurrently after admitting actual bodily harm. He was also given 10 months' jail, again to run concurrently, for assaulting an off-duty policeman in June 2005. |