Leeds man warned to expect jail term for manslaughter after neighbour kicked to death in Hyde Park

Thirty-two-year-old David Stead died after suffering injuries including two broken ribs and a laceration to his spleen on Autumn Street in Hyde Park on the evening of May 7.

A jury today took less than three hours to find Hisan Yaquob, 26, guilty of his manslaughter but not guilty of his murder after a trial at Leeds Crown Court.

He is due to be sentenced tomorrow.

The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Juy Kearl, QC, said: “It is inevitable this will be a prison sentence, because of the offence of which you have been convicted.”

The court had heard Mr Stead, of Harold Grove, Hyde Park, had a history of alcohol abuse and that he and his partner Dawn Edmonds were both drug addicts.

The prosecution said they borrowed money at high interest rates from Yaquob’s girlfriend Ciara Flanagan’s mother Angela and had outstanding debts totalling more than £900.

On the morning of May 8, Mr Stead phoned 999 and told operators he had “had a kicking and was dying,” the jury was told.

The court heard 26-year-old Yaquob lived opposite Mr Stead at the time of the attack.

Yaquob told the court he lives at both Harold Grove with Ciara and their children and with his parents in Headingley.

But Yaquob had denied being involved in collecting a debt from Mr Stead.

Yaquob said he had seen Mr Stead on Autumn Street on the night of May 7 and had sworn at him but had not attacked him.

Yaquob, of Beckett's Park Drive, Headingley, has been remanded in custody ahead of his sentencing tomorrow.