Brutal son who killed house carer is locked up

A former West Yorkshire bandsman who battered a retired mechanical engineer to death at a house in Huddersfield has been jailed indefinitely for public protection.

After repeatedly hitting 67-year-old Peter Green with a heavy spanner, James Spencer stabbed him in the chest and abdomen with a kitchen knife and may even have used the weapon to try to cut off his hands.

Mr Green, who had been looking after the home and dogs of Spencer's mother while she was away on holiday, died from multiple head wounds after the savage early hours attack at the house in Lidgett Lane, Skelmanthorpe.

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His widow Linda was at Bradford Crown Court yesterday to see Spencer, who admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, locked up after a judge concluded he posed a serious risk to the public.

In a victim impact statement Mrs Green said the death of her husband of 28 years in October 2008 had left her devastated.

She had returned to work recently but lost that job because she was unable to concentrate fully on it.

The court heard her described herself as living a constant nightmare and said after a wonderful life together she now felt totally empty.

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Spencer, who used to play the tuba in Honley Band, was said to have started drinking heavily following the death of his own father in 2003 and the court heard that on the day and night before the killing he had been drinking pints of Guinness, shots of vodka and a large cocktail.

After his arrest it was calculated he may have been more than three-and-a-half times the drink-drive limit at the time he carried out the killing.

When asked to explain the deep wounds inflicted on Mr Green's wrists Spencer told police his victim had been twitching and he slit his wrists and stabbed him to make sure he was dead.

The court heard Spencer, who had no previous convictions for violence, had only been diagnosed as suffering from a mild form of Asberger's Syndrome following the killing and one neighbour who had a dispute with him had described him as a "ticking timebomb".

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Mark McKone, prosecuting, said when Spencer's mother went on holiday her son was not allowed to stay at the house and he was not given a key.

Judge James Goss QC said it was clear from his behaviour leading up to the killing the situation was a source of frustration and annoyance to him.

In the early hours of October 19 he kicked open the front door of the house then used the spanner to attack Mr Green, initially upstairs and then later downstairs.

The severity of the attack caused fractures to Mr Green's face and neck and Spencer inflicted eight separate stab wounds with the kitchen knife.

The wounds to his wrists cut through tendons and muscles.

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Spencer was described as being calm and not apparently drunk when he later turned up at the house of his mother's estranged husband and took him back to the scene of the killing.

Although he initially claimed to have come across the scene, he later admitted kicking in the door and attacking Mr Green.

The judge told Spencer, who showed no emotion during the lengthy hearing, that he would have to serve a minimum of seven years and 148 days in jail before being considered for release.

But he added he would only be released if the Parole Board considered he no longer posed a risk to the public.