Life sentence for talented footballer who pleaded guilty to brawl murder

AN ASPIRING footballer was handed a life sentence for the murder of a Sheffield teenager, who died from a stab wound to the heart after a fight broke out at a 16th birthday party.

Seaon Thompson, of Lydgate Lane, Crosspool, Sheffield, was just 15 when he murdered 18-year-old Dale Robertson during a street brawl in Rokeby Drive, Parson Cross.

Thompson, who just hours earlier had signed up to play for Sheffield United's Young Blades team and was photographed on the pitch at Bramall Lane, was one of a gang of teenagers who attacked Mr Robertson after a row over the theft of some X-Box computer games at the party on September 8, 2008.

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A gang of between 10 and 15 youths beat Mr Robertson with blunt objects including fence posts and also stabbed him three times during the vicious attack.

Although the identity of the person who stabbed Mr Robertson was never established, after a trial in 2009 both Thompson, now 17, and Reece Mendez, 19, of Yew Greave Crescent, Ecclesfield, were convicted of murder on grounds of participation in a joint enterprise to cause serious harm.

That conviction was later quashed at the Court of Appeal after it was ruled the trial judge had failed to give the jury "sufficiently clear and balanced" directions.

Mendez, who didn't know a knife was involved in the attack, had his murder conviction replaced by one for violent disorder and was freed from prison.

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Thompson's retrial, meanwhile, was set to begin at Sheffield Crown Court on July 6 this year. But he then entered a guilty plea and was handed a life sentence, to serve a minimum tariff of 10 years and four months, by Mrs Justice Slade yesterday.

The judge said: "It is apparent that Seaon Thompson is an intelligent young man, capable of good academic achievement, and he has also done well at football. However, Thompson's behaviour has not lived up to his talents and advantages."

Due to the time he has already served in a young offenders' institution, Thompson will be eligible for parole in nine years.

Following the hearing at Sheffield Crown Court, Det Supt Richard Fewkes, who led the murder investigation, welcomed Thompson's sentence.

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"The investigation into the death of Dale Robertson was very thorough and indeed one man, Seaon Thompson, has been convicted in relation to his part in that murder.

"The investigation has been closed and we have completed all our enquiries."

Mr Robertson's sister, Sarah Robertson, said outside court: "Though we do give Seaon Thomson some credit for his guilty plea, this is because he has saved us the ordeal of another trial.

"However, I have still lost a brother and we have all lost Dale. Almost two years have passed, but we feel like it was only yesterday.

"I'm relieved that the court procedure has finally come to an end, but we don't feel that the sentence compensates us for Dale's life."

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