Scourge of stabbings attacked as killer given life

A JUDGE described knife crime as the “scourge of modern society” yesterday when he ordered a 20-year-old to be detained for life for the murder of a man he stabbed in the street.

Richard Oldroyd was unanimously convicted by a jury at Leeds Crown Court of the murder of Peter Brocklesby, 50, of Brooklyn Road, Cleckheaton, on May 7, this year.

He claimed he stabbed Mr Brocklesby twice in the back trying to protect a friend the older man was attacking after a confrontation about someone kicking his dog.

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Ordering him to be detained for a minimum of 20 years, Mr Justice Foskett told Oldroyd, of Great Pond Street, Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury, the jury had rejected his account.

He said Oldroyd had deliberately taken a lethal knife with him that night for reasons unconnected with Mr Brocklesby.

“Whatever reason drove you to take a knife with you the fact is you did, you did so unlawfully and killed someone,” he said.

He plunged the knife twice into Mr Brocklesby’s back sufficiently hard for it to go in almost to the hilt on both occasions and for it to break one of the strongest bones in the body, in the spine.

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The judge said he was not alone in describing knife crime as the “scourge of modern society” and the fact that Parliament had increased the minimum sentence in such killings demonstrated the concern.

“You had the knife on you so it was readily available to use as a weapon if the opportunity presented itself. This was a knife taken into a public place and used in a public place.

“This is just the kind of mindless violence that puts decent law-abiding people in fear of going out.”

Mr Justice Foskett said although Mr Brocklesby had a worse record than Oldroyd when he met his “bloody end” he was entitled not to lose his life unlawfully in such a way.

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“He has paid the price for acting as he did now you need to pay the price as well for what you did,” he said.

“Others have to know taking a knife out with them on to the streets is simply not worth it.”

He told Oldroyd had he channelled his aggression into the discipline of rugby league which he had played in the past he might not have been in such a position.

The jury heard during the trial that Oldroyd was at a party in Brooklyn Drive. Around the time he and his friends left, Mr Brocklesby’s dog tied up nearby was heard to yelp and someone told Mr Brocklesby that Oldroyd had kicked the animal.

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He then followed the group and it was then Oldroyd claimed Mr Brocklesby grabbed his friend Josiah Mayman and began striking him with something.

Oldroyd told the jury he had the kitchen knife in his bag for protection because threats had previously been exchanged with another man over Facebook. He said when Mr Brocklesby did not listen to him telling him to stop he pulled out the knife and ended up stabbing him twice.

The jury did not hear that Mr Brocklesby had only recently been released from prison after being jailed for 22 years in 2007 for conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine, false imprisonment, wounding with intent and kidnap arising from his running a drugs business.

After the case Detective Chief Inspector Simon Bottomley, of West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, said: “In stabbing to death Peter Brocklesby, Richard Oldroyd has brought knife crime back into the forefront of the public’s minds.

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“Murder obviously carries a life term, which is what Oldroyd will now serve for at least the next 20 years.

“The new powers that are available to the courts for sentencing people involved in knife crime however, should also send a clear warning to people who consider committing knife-related crime: that if they are caught, they face serious prison time.”