Teen’s 10 killers acted like a ‘ herd of lions’
TEN teenagers acting like a ‘herd of lions’ murdered a ‘randomly selected and entirely innocent stranger’.
The gang of 14 to 17-year-olds ‘swarmed like zombies’ around Jack Woodley, killing him for ‘excitement and pleasure’.
Surrounding their 18-year- old victim, the teens pulled on balaclavas and face coverings before kicking and punching him. Witness Gordon Rivers, looking out from a nearby pub, recalled of the 80- second attack: ‘I saw what I can only describe as a herd of lions attacking a young lad.’
Mr Woodley was stabbed twice in the hip and back with a teninch ‘Rambo’ knife.
The gang were jailed for a total of at least 124 years.
In mobile phone footage, one defendant could be heard shouting ‘get the chopper out and do him’.
The horrifying attack happened after Mr Woodley asked why a crying girl had been assaulted, the court heard.
Mr Woodley, who knew none of his attackers, told them he didn’t want to fight and tried to run away. He was taken to hospital but died a day later without regaining consciousness.
Mr Woodley’s parents told Newcastle Crown Court they would be ‘forever haunted’ by his death. Their son was murdered last October 16 at a funfair at the Houghton Feast, a celebration dating from the 12th century in Houghton-le- Spring, County Durham.
Sentencing the gang, who cannot be named because of their young ages, Judge Rodney Jameson QC said they struck ‘for the excitement and pleasure of inflicting really serious injury on a randomly selected and entirely innocent stranger’.
‘It was an attack committed in public to the horror of onlookers who will have included children,’ he added.
The gang, now aged 15 to 18, received life sentences with minimum terms ranging from eight to 17 years.
The longest sentence was a 17year tariff for the 15-year-old boy who stabbed Jack. The court heard the cannabis- smoking youth was obsessed with knives and gang violence, and had a previous conviction for possessing a blade.
Judge Jameson told the youth: ‘You intended to kill when you inflicted the second stab wound.’
The judge said Mr Woodley was killed the day before he was due to start a new job with Amazon and was going to pick up the keys to a new flat.
‘He must have been full of plans for the future,’ he added.
The youngest gang member, 14 at the time and who has learning difficulties, was jailed for at least eight years. Only one member of the gang showed any emotion – a 15-year-old who burst into tears as he was jailed for at least 11 years.
Before the hearing, friends and relatives of the gang clashed verbally with Mr Woodley’s mother Zoey McGill and her supporters. Three people were arrested.
Miss McGill, 35, a supervisor with a pharmaceutical company, said the family would be ‘ forever haunted about Jack’s injuries’, adding: ‘Life will never be the same. No parent, loved one or friend should suffer someone going to a fair and losing them for ever.’
Jack’s father John said his heart was ‘broken into a million pieces’. He added: ‘It was a cowardly attack. The pain and fear Jack endured must have been unthinkable.’
The boy who brought the knife and stabbed Mr Woodley admitted manslaughter but was found guilty of murder, along with all the other defendants, after a trial in June.