‘A MONSTER AND A WASTE OF SPACE’
FAMILY SLAM ‘FRIEND’ WHO MURDERED THEIR FATHER
THE family of a dad-of-five murdered by his friend have slammed his killer as a “monster and a waste of space”.
Relatives of Stuart Morris had their say in court before murderer Martin Green, pictured, was sentenced to life, with a minimum term of 21 years and 10 months.
In a moving statement, they said: “Our dad was brutally taken away in one of the most terrible, unforgiving ways and by someone that he called a friend of many years.”
A MURDERER who bludgeoned and stabbed his friend to death following a drink and drugs binge has been jailed for life.
The victim, Stuart Morris, a fatherof-five who was also a devoted granddad, died from multiple injuries at the home of his killer, Martin Green, in Heathcott Road, off Saffron Lane.
The men, both 50, were said to have been good friends.
The victim’s grown up children wept in the public gallery at Leicester Crown Court as they heard that, after slaying their father with a metal pole and a kitchen knife, Green went on to savagely mutilate his dead body, by slashing his genitals to try to thwart the police investigation.
After the killing, the defendant duped two neighbours – claiming he had locked himself out of his flat on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 14 and borrowed a hammer to break into his home.
Once inside, he feigned horror at finding Mr Morris’s bloodstained body in the lounge – and continued to fake distress when the police arrived.
Green, who sat throughout the hearing in the dock leaning forwards with his head facing the floor, was told he will have to spend a minimum of 21 years and 10 months behind bars.
He originally denied murder, but changed his plea at the start of a trial after the jury was sworn in.
Mr Morris, of Earl Russell Street, off Aylestone Road, Leicester, died from a combination of catastrophic trauma to the head and knife wounds.
Pavlos Panayi QC, prosecuting, said the two men took a taxi to Green’s flat at 8am on April 14 and continued drinking and taking crackcocaine.
They visited a local shop together twice that morning to buy brandy.
Evidence indicated the killing took place in the afternoon, between 1.23pm and 2.06pm.
At 2.49pm, Green left home and hid in a nearby alleyway for one hour and 22 minutes.
He later claimed some “mystery man” must have killed Mr Morris while he was out, said the prosecutor.
In interview, he kept changing his account and, with reference to the victim’s mutilated genitals, suggested a woman with a grudge may have killed him.
The victim suffered about 35 knife wounds, including fatally severing the carotid artery and brachial vein, with 15 to 20 kitchen knife wounds prior to death – and the remainder afterwards with a craft knife that was found with a snapped blade.
The vacuum cleaner pole was used so “ferociously” to “batter” the victim’s head and upper body, that police found the pole flattened and in the shape of an arc.
Most of the attack happened when Mr Morris was on the sofa.
He sustained defence injuries while trying to protect himself.
WHAT WAS SAID IN MITIGATION
Michael Auty QC, in mitigation, said that Green was not seeking to blame Mr Morris for what happened that fateful day.
He described Green as having been in a “pitiful state” for some time, having been prescribed antidepressants and anti-psychotic medication and was under community psychiatric care, living a “chaotic lifestyle” and using crackcocaine.
He said the attack was unplanned and added: “What provoked it, and to the extent of the attack becoming as brutal as it was, we can say very little.
“We accept the mutilation is an aggravating feature and the prosecution are right that it happened once he’d appreciated the awfulness of what he’d done – it was blind desperation.”
Judge Head said: “It was the outset of a continuing and detailed plan to deflect the investigation away from him and to someone else.”
Mr Auty said: “It was completely inept. He was desperate to evade responsibility and the manner in which he did it was pitiful.
“He knows there’s an enormous question mark over whether he will ever be released. He knows there will only be one outcome of this.
“Whether he ever sees another day (at liberty) is something he cannot now know.”
The judge agreed, telling Green he could only apply to the Parole Board for release after serving 21 years and 10 months.
He said: “Mr Auty recognised on your behalf that may never happen, but if you are released, you will spend the rest of your life on licence.”
WHAT THE JUDGE SAID
Sentencing Green yesterday, Judge Philip Head said: “Mr Morris was not a well man, for a variety of reasons.
“He couldn’t walk very far and would have had the greatest difficulty avoiding an attack and you must have been aware of his grave physical problems.
“On the night of Monday, April 13 you were with him at his flat, drinking and taking hard drugs, and the next morning took a taxi to your flat and continued drinking and consuming drugs.
“For whatever reason, you became angry with Mr Morris and decided to make a prolonged attack, first with a vacuum cleaner pole and then a kitchen knife.
“Although influenced by drink and drugs, you were thinking clearly enough and launched such a prolonged and determined attack upon him, so you must have intended to kill him.
“He must have suffered very significantly and you inflicted unpleasant genital mutilation of his body after he died.
“You did it to point to someone else as being responsible.”
The judge also told Green, who wore a grey tracksuit and remained expressionless: “You had a muddled and a chaotic lifestyle.
“I bear in mind what’s been said about Mr Morris showing kindness to you when you were in that state.
“What you did to that man who had befriended you was truly dreadful.”