Murder Of Garry Newlove
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Garry Newlove (5 November 1959 – 12 August 2007) was an
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
man beaten to death in August 2007 in the UK. His murder caused anger in the UK over the two offenders who had been underage drinking. Chief Constable of the
Cheshire Constabulary Cheshire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the English unitary authorities of Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Borough of Halton and Borough of Warrington. The force is responsible for policing an are ...
Peter Fahy Sir Peter Martin Fahy (born 18 January 1959 in London, England) is a retired senior British police officer. He was the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police (GMP), the United Kingdom's third largest police force. He retired from the pol ...
called for the legal age of buying alcohol to increase to the age of 21 as a result of the Garry Newlove murder. His widow Helen Newlove condemned the Government for failing to get to grips with youth disorder afterwards.


Victim

Garry Newlove was born in
Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
, on 5 November 1959, the youngest of three children born to Thomas Edward Newlove (1913–1979) and his wife Ellen (1919–2002). He was married to Helen Marston from 1986 until his death, and had three daughters who were born between 1989 and 1994. He was diagnosed with stomach cancer in August 1992 and made a full recovery from surgery to have his stomach and spleen removed. By 2007, he was living in
Padgate Padgate is a suburb of Warrington, in the civil parish of Poulton-with-Fearnhead, in the Warrington district, in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. History Overview Historically part of Lancashire, until 1838 Padgate was an area of far ...
,
Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...
, and was working as a sales manager for a local plastics company.


Incident and arrests

Newlove was attacked outside his house in Station Road North in the
Padgate Padgate is a suburb of Warrington, in the civil parish of Poulton-with-Fearnhead, in the Warrington district, in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. History Overview Historically part of Lancashire, until 1838 Padgate was an area of far ...
district of
Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...
,
Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
, on the evening of 10 August 2007, having gone outside to confront a gang of youths he suspected of vandalising his wife's car. He died in hospital in the early hours of 12 August 2007, less than 36 hours after the attack. The murder was the culmination of numerous incidents of anti-social behaviour by youth gangs in and around Padgate, which had started several years earlier. Nine suspects were quickly arrested, and five were charged with his murder on 14 August 2007 and remanded in custody. A fourth teenager was charged and remanded the next day and the fifth and final suspect was charged and remanded on 13 September. Adam Swellings, 19, from
Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...
, went on trial at
Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
Crown Court The Crown Court is the court of first instance of England and Wales responsible for hearing all Indictable offence, indictable offences, some Hybrid offence, either way offences and appeals lied to it by the Magistrates' court, magistrates' court ...
charged with the murder on 14 November 2007, along with two 17-year-olds, a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old who could not be named for legal reasons.


Verdicts and aftermath

On 16 January 2008, Adam Swellings was convicted of the murder of Garry Newlove, along with 17-year-old Stephen Sorton and 16-year-old Jordan Cunliffe. The two other defendants were cleared of any involvement in the killing and walked free from court. Swellings, Sorton and Cunliffe were remanded in custody until being sentenced to
life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
on 11 February 2008. The trial judge recommended that Swellings, Sorton and Cunliffe should serve minimum terms of 17, 15 and 12 years respectively – sentences which were widely described as lenient by the victim's family and friends, as well as the tabloid media – as these sentences meant that the youngest of the three killers could be out of prison by the age of 28, and the oldest was likely to be paroled in his mid thirties. Garry Newlove's murder was one of a number of high profile, widely reported murders in the United Kingdom during the late 2000s which highlighted the rise of crime involving youth gangs. Other comparable murders around the same time which attracted national attention were the murders of Tom ap Rhys Pryce (2006),
Sophie Lancaster Sophie is a version of the female given name Sophia, meaning "wise". People with the name Born in the Middle Ages * Sophie, Countess of Bar (c. 1004 or 1018–1093), sovereign Countess of Bar and lady of Mousson * Sophie of Thuringia, Duchess o ...
(2007), Rhys Jones (2007),
Jimmy Mizen Jimmy may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Jimmy'' (2008 film), a 2008 Hindi thriller directed by Raj N. Sippy * ''Jimmy'' (1979 film), a 1979 Indian Malayalam film directed by Melattoor Ravi Varma * ''Jimmy'' (2013 f ...
(2008) and
Ben Kinsella Ben Michael Kinsella (27 October 1991 – 29 June 2008) was a 16-year-old student at Holloway School who was stabbed to death in an attack by three men in June 2008 in Islington. The significant media attention around his murder (the 17th st ...
(2008), all of which were committed by teenagers. Since the trial, Garry Newlove's widow Helen Newlove has actively campaigned through the media for more support for victims of crime, and for more severe sentences for criminals, as well as working with communities and working to reduce crime.She was awarded a Peerage for this work in the Dissolution Honours of 2010 and is now styled Baroness Newlove.


Appeals

Swellings and Sorton appealed against their convictions and sentences. Their case was heard at the
Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...
on 13 November 2008. Swellings lost the appeal against his conviction and sentence, although Sorton won a two-year reduction on his minimum sentence. Cunliffe later appealed against his murder conviction on the grounds that he had not taken part in the attack on Mr Newlove, although he had been present when it happened. On 26 July 2010, the Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal. His mother later questioned his murder conviction, claiming he could barely see the attack taking place due to a degenerative eye condition.


Parole

In December 2019, the
Parole Board A parole board is a panel of people who decide whether an offender should be released from prison on parole after serving at least a minimum portion of their sentence as prescribed by the sentencing judge. Parole boards are used in many jurisdiction ...
recommended that Jordan Cunliffe (now aged 28) should be released from prison, but on 14 May 2020 it was reported that Cunliffe had been denied parole following reports that he had held an alcohol-fuelled party in his prison cell at an open prison to celebrate his impending release. As a result, and pending further consideration, he was returned to closed conditions in another prison. Cunliffe was eventually paroled in September 2020. This decision was challenged by the Secretary of State but that appeal was dismissed on 23 October 2020. In February 2020, the Parole Board also recommended that Steven Sorton (now aged 29) should be released from prison. He is believed to have been paroled the following month. In April 2022, the Parole Board recommended that gang ringleader Adam Swellings be moved to an
open prison An open prison (open jail) is any jail in which the prisoners are trusted to complete sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and are often not locked up in their prison cells. Prisoners may be permitted to take up employment w ...
with day release provisions. However, the move was blocked by Justice Secretary Dominic Raab.


Popular culture

The screenwriter
Jimmy McGovern James Stanley McGovern (born September 1949) is an English screenwriter and producer. He is best known for creating the drama series '' Cracker'' (1993–1995), for which he received two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. He als ...
later used the case of Jordan Cunliffe as a basis for a new television drama. ''
Common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...
'' was shown on
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
on 6 July 2014.


See also

*
John Cannan John David Guise Cannan (born 20 February 1954) is a British murderer, serial rapist, serial abductor and suspected serial killer. A former car salesman, Cannan was convicted in July 1988 of murder and multiple sexual offences, abductions and ...
, another infamous murderer (and suspected killer of
Suzy Lamplugh Suzy may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Suzy'' (film), a 1936 film starring Jean Harlow, Franchot Tone and Cary Grant * "Suzy" (Fool's Garden song), a song by German pop band Fool's Garden * "Suzy", a song by French electro swing band Ca ...
) who is also now eligible for release *
Patrick Mackay David Groves, better known by his birth name Patrick David Mackay (born 25 September 1952), is a British serial killer who is believed to be one of the United Kingdom's most prolific serial murderers. He confessed to murdering thirteen pe ...
, a British serial killer who is now eligible for release from prison


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newlove, Garry 2007 murders in the United Kingdom 2007 in England 2000s in Cheshire August 2007 crimes August 2007 events in the United Kingdom Deaths by beating in the United Kingdom Murder in Cheshire