A number of murder and manslaughter cases came though the courts during 2024. Here, reporter Martin Naylor, highlights the major cases he covered.
Brandon Froggatt
Derby drug dealer Brandon Froggatt disappeared to Tenerife after killing father-of-two Corey Duffy who had come to rob him. The 21-year-old stabbed the victim four times in Cooper Street before fleeing on an E-Bike still clutching the blade.
The fatally-injured 30-year-old managed to stagger back to the bail hostel where he was staying in Bass Street before collapsing and dying. The defendant, of Ashley Street, then jetted off for a week before being arrested at East Midlands Airport when he arrived back in the UK.
Jailing Froggatt for nine years and two months, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “On an ordinary Sunday afternoon, on June 11, 2023, the lives of two families came crashing down because you killed Corey Duffy. You did not set out to, you did not intend to, but you did. You stabbed him with a knife you took to Cooper Street where you were expecting to sell him drugs. You did not know Corey Duffy had other ideas, it is not disputed that he was there to steal your E-Bike and that he was armed with a hammer.
“You were, by your own admission, a drug dealer and that is why you had the knife. He was a much-loved young man who is missed terribly by those who loved him.”
Froggatt was initially charged with murder, but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
Brandon Froggatt
(Image: Derbyshire Police)
Creswell manslaughter
A Nether Langwith man killed “the wrong man” after chasing him down the street and striking him to the side of the head in what a judge called “an inexplicable act of violence”. CCTV played at Derby Crown Court showed much-loved grandfather David Thompson drop to the floor after being hit with what a witness called “a sucker punch” delivered by Brandon Brooks.
The 50-year-old father-of-four, who has a two-year-old daughter, suffered untreatable injuries including a bleed to the brain and died in hospital 19 days after the attack. And in a moving victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Thompson’ adult daughter Emma said: “I still can’t believe he won’t come walking through the door.”
Sentencing Brooks and two men who assisted him – Ben Hart and Michael McCann – for the parts they played in the killing, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “His death has shattered many lives and he died because of an inexplicable act of violence by you, Brooks, who chased him down the street and struck him with a powerful round arm blow described by a witness as ‘a sucker punch’. You, Hart and McCann played your part, you knew what the plan was and although your responsibility is less in terms of the law, you both bear a moral responsibility.”
The killing took place in the early hours of January 27, this year, in Elmton Road, Creswell, on the Nottinghamshire and Derbyhsire border. All three men were arrested and initially charged with murder. But at an earlier hearing in June, Brooks pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter, Hart pleaded guilty to assisting an offender and McCann pleaded guilty to a public order offence which the prosecution accepted.
Brooks, 24, of Fairfield Close, Nether Langwith, was jailed for five years; Hart, 21, of Skinner Street, Creswell, was sent to prison for nine months which will see his immediate release as he has been on remand since his arrest.
And McCann, 38, of no fixed address was handed a 12-week jail term.
Brandon Brooks has been jailed
(Image: Derbyshire police)
Ilkeston manslaughter
Drug addict Regan Martin, who stabbed her long-term partner to death at the supported housing block where they lived in Ilkeston while high on drink and drugs, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years. The 48-year-old “lashed out in a fit of paranoia” with a blade she had seized from a knife block and plunged it into Wayne Sibley’s leg during an argument.
That severed a main artery and the 45-year-old was declared dead just over an hour later. And in a victim impact statement, one of Mr Sibley’s daughters said: “The actions of Regan will haunt me forever and I no longer feel like a whole person without him.”
Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “Against a background of drinking and drug taking and during an argument which typified your relationship, to quote you during the trial, you said ‘here we go again’. But it was not a case of ‘here we go again’ because you took a knife and stabbed him and it was a deliberate action on your part despite the drink and drugs you’d consumed – both of you had taken heroin, crack cocaine and cider.
“Wayne Sibley was a much-loved man and he will be missed terribly by those who loved and still miss him. Whatever I choose to do it will not bring back Wayne Sibley to those who loved, and continue to love, him.”
A murder trial heard how Martin stabbed Mr Sibley once to the leg in his flat in Stamford Street on December 19, last year. Police were called at around 4.45pm but the 45-year-old victim was unable to be saved by medics and was declared deceased just over an hour later.
Martin, was charged with murder but was found not guilty of it, but had already offered a plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Regan Martin
(Image: Derbyshire Police)
Baby murderer
A Matlock teenager has been handed an indefinite sentence after shaking his partner’s baby to death, causing “catastrophic” brain injuries, when he was 16 years old. Carl Alesbrook, now aged 19, caused whiplash-type injuries, bleeding on the brain and multiple bone fractures to four-month-old Elijah Shemwell seven weeks after meeting his mother in November, 2021.
The defendant, previously of Upper Greenhill Gardens, denied murdering Elijah but was unanimously convicted after a five-week trial in July and was handed a minimum term of 14 years, minus the time he has already served, at Derby Crown Court on Friday, November 15.
His ex-partner, India Shemwell, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment at the same court after she admitted two counts of child cruelty in December last year. Alesbrook had denied murder and causing grievous bodily harm relating to attacks on Elijah between November 18, 2021, and January 2, 2022, three days before his death at Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre.
Elijah died on January 5 with fatal head injuries that were described in court as “catastrophic”. Shemwell cried in the dock as the videos of Elijah appearing “lifeless” were played to the court during the sentencing hearing.
She was described during her ex-partner’s trial as “a thoroughly inadequate mother” who generally and specifically neglected to seek prompt medical attention for her son. Prosecutor Vanessa Marshall KC said Shemwell “failed to prioritise the needs of Elijah over her own” and should have known Elijah was “testing Mr Alesbrook’s patience”.
She said: “It is the prosecution’s case that she should have appreciated shortly after he had been shaken, for probably the second time, that Elijah was very unwell and needed medical attention. That is particularly the case when she would have seen, as we have, fresh bruising on Elijah’s face.”
Shemwell’s defence lawyer Darron Whitehead said: “She knows she has let down her son, she knows she has let herself down, and she has let down her family. It is her inactivity, it’s her failings, that will haunt her for the rest of her life. She misses Elijah and no matter what is said in this room, or in writing, she loved her son.”
A victim impact statement by Shemwell’s mother, Rachel Shemwell, read to the court by Ms Marshall, said her daughter was “not the best of mums” and things could have “turned out differently” if she had asked for help. She wrote: “We will never get Elijah back and can only remember the happiness he brought us in his short life.”
Mr Justice Jeremy Baker said: “The effect of Eli’s death on those who loved him is evident. Nothing this court can do will assuage their overwhelming sense of loss.”
Carl Alesbrook and India Shemwell
(Image: Derbyshire Police)
Aston-on-Trent wife murder
Killer Michael McDaid, who murdered his wife by strangling her with a bootlace in Eastwood, was described by his eldest son as “a monster”. The 60-year-old, of Acre Lane, Aston-on-Trent, Derby, could not even look at 23-year-old Owen’s face as his own flesh and blood stared at him in the dock and bravely told him “I am truly ashamed to have ever called you my dad”.
Mum-of-three Rachel was strangled to death by McDaid at their former family home in Nottingham Road, on the morning of April 19. Jailing him for life and telling him it will be 23 years and four months until he is eligible to apply for parole, Judge Stuart Rafferty KC said: “Even now, I am not sure you have any idea just how much harm you have caused. You did not just kill one person, you killed all these people (Rachel’s family and friends) because they will never recover from what you did.
“How could they? You had planned this for some time or if not planned it you mulled it over. You took with you the ligature you used. This shows how calm you were, you did not just tie it once around her neck but twice, it had grips at both ends so you could get the most purchase you could.
“She did not deserve to die. For no reason at all you destroyed somebody else’s life. There is a wholesale lack of remorse. It is clear from the letter you have written you are still, to some extent, labouring under the illusion to suggest your mental state was such that you had no alternative.
“To say you had no alternative than to kill her is frankly ludicrous. There was no justification for her death and no history of her treating you as the victim. All of this was in your own warped mind.”
McDaid pleaded guilty to murder at a previous hearing on Friday, July 5 and has no previous convictions.
Michael McDaid
(Image: Nottinghamshire police)
The throat-slitting gang
A four-strong gang slit the throat of a young Long Eaton man and dumped his body in a stream. A judge told Jack Towell, David Oswald and two other men, who cannot be named for legal reasons, what they did to Owen Fairclough was “a planned killing” which “wiped out his capacity to live a decent family life”.
The quartet conspired together and hatched a plan to kill the 21-year-old believing he was about to report their drug dealing criminality to the police. So they lured him to a secluded spot in Breaston where three of them savagely murdered him and fled from the scene.
Telling the quartet they would collectively serve at least 110 years behind bars before they can apply for parole, Judge Gregory Dickinson KC said: “Shortly before midnight on June 21, 2023, in an isolated area, Owen Fairclough was murdered. His throat had been cut, he had been stabbed and barely alive he was manhandled to a bank and dropped into a brook.
“There his body remained for two days until it was found. Owen was no angel, he was being drawn into the world of drugs by people like you. But he was loved, he had youth and had the capacity to live a decent family life. That was wiped out by you.
“This was a planned killing to preserve your criminal lifestyle. The method of killing was no doubt discussed – a Rambo knife. There may have been one knife or two, one assailant or two. But all of you killed Owen Fairclough and there has been a total lack of remorse.”
The murder happened in June 2023 and each of the defendants were jailed for life.
Towell, 22 and formerly of Castle Boulevard, Nottingham, pleaded guilty to murder partway through the trial and was told it will be 30 years before he will be eligible to apply for parole.
Oswald, 31, of Granville Square, Birmingham, was unanimously found guilty of murder and given a 29-year minimum tariff. Man A, who is 22 and from the Long Eaton area, was also unanimously found guilty of murder told he cannot apply for parole until 26 years into his life sentence.
And Man B, a 28-year-old from Nottinghamshire, was found guilty of murder by a majority of 10 to 2 and was handed a 25-year tariff.
Jack Towell and David Oswald, both jailed for life for the murder of Owen Fairclough
(Image: Derbyshire Police)