'Dangerous' Sheffield killer said to feel 'remorse' for neighbour's death smirked as he left court

Lee Phillips, aged 45, was found seriously injured after being attacked outside his home on South Road in the High Green area of Sheffield, just after 1am on Saturday, January 30, 2021. Despite the best efforts of medics, he died a short time later.

Jurors found his neighbour, William Parr, guilty of manslaughter, relating to the fatal attack upon Mr Phillips, at the conclusion of a Sheffield Crown Court trial in February 2023.

Sending 27-year-old Parr to begin a nine-year custodial sentence today, The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, described Parr as a ‘dangerous offender’ who, when ‘slighted,’ reacts by ‘punching and punching hard’.

“You behaved in the way you normally do – you punched out – which is exactly what you did that night,” Judge Richardson said of Parr, who trained as a boxer during his adolescence.

Summarising the moments leading up to the fatal attack, which cost Mr Phillips his life, Judge Richardson said: “There was an encounter in the passage way. On one side there was Lee Phillips, the deceased, on the other there was you. Undoubtedly, shortly after that encounter erupted the deceased died.”

Explaining the background to Mr Phillip choosing to ‘remonstrate’ with Parr, previously of South Road, High Green, on the night of the fatal attack, Judge Richardson said it was borne out of the ‘anti-social behaviour coming out of’ Parr’s home, which included the setting of fires.

He told the court that he found Parr’s previous convictions including assault occasioning actual bodily harm and grievous bodily harm to be an aggravating factor, and that he ‘knew or ought to have known’ the consequences of subjecting Mr Phillips to ‘two hard blows’ to the head, which were similar to the kind he has previously inflicted upon individuals he perceived to have ‘slighted’ him.

Mr Phillips’ partner, Susan Walliss, found him fatally wounded just outside the home they shared, and chose to face the man responsible for killing her beloved partner when she read her victim impact statement in court from the witness box.

“Lee’s death has left me in shock and unable to take in what has happened,” Ms Walliss said, adding that the impact of Mr Phillips’ death has had an ‘extreme’ affect on both her mental and physical health, and in addition to being afraid to venture more than a short distance from her home, she has also been forced to give up her job.

She continued: “There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think of Lee lying there injured.”

Judge Richardson praised Ms Walliss for the ‘immense dignity’ she displayed during the hearing, adding: “I do not doubt for a moment that this has had the most troubling affect on you in the way you have explained.”

He told Ms Walliss that the purpose of this sentencing hearing was not to place a ‘value upon the life of your partner’ through the length of the custodial term passed, explaining that he is required to stay within the range of the sentencing guidelines used by judges and to consider other factors.

“What I want to say is really much more on a human level: it would be absurd for me to say to you that one day you will get over this – you won’t. This is the hard reality. However, you will, in due course, I’m sure, come to terms with this,” Judge Richardson told Ms Walliss, adding that he wishes her well.

In mitigation, Parr’s barrister, James Hill KC, said his client was someone with ‘intellectual disadvantages’ who struggles to express himself and to understand the fault in his actions when someone ‘brings trouble to him’.

Mr Hill said Parr had previously demonstrated his ‘remorse,’ both through his evidence to the court during his trial, and the way in which he enquired about Mr Phillips’ wellbeing after inflicting the fatal blows upon him, evidenced through the body-cam footage from police officers called to the scene that was shown to the jury.

However, despite this, after Judge Richardson passed sentence, Parr smirked and appeared to laugh as the dock officer led him out of court to begin his nine-year sentence.