History of violence revealed

THREE years ago, Richard Lee took a relationship break-up badly.

Armed with a wooden weapon, he stormed around his former long-term partner’s family’s home.

He proceeded to smash the weapon off both her car and that of her parents.

But in a chilling prophecy of what was to come, he warned her dad that he “would stab him”.

He didn’t – but he did plunge a blade seven inches into former schoolmate Ryan Thompson’s body, killing him.

As he was jailed for life for the dad-to-be’s murder, the Sacriston killer’s shameful record of violence was revealed.

Concealed from the jury during the trial, it emerged Lee had previously been locked up for a brutal attack.

And it was said that the 25-year-old killer first appeared in a Crown Court dock aged just 15, as a youth.

A decade ago, he was hauled before a judge in County Durham after kicking and punching a man.

His case would be sent back to the youth court for Lee to get a nine-month referral order for ABH.

But two years later, the thug was back in court – and this time he ended up behind bars.

Newcastle Crown Court heard he “powerfully punched” someone to the mouth. He was again convicted of ABH but also a charge of affray, in an attack prosecutors claimed was more serious.

A judge agreed, sentencing him to 21 months in a young offenders’ institute. Now he faces life behind bars. The tragedy unfolded on Gregson Street in Sacriston in the early hours of September 1 last year.

The defendant had stormed out after youths stole motorbikes from a friend’s garage.

But Mr Thompson arrived and the court heard that in a “misunderstanding” the victim and owner of the bikes initially threw punches at Lee.

Justice Richard Jacobs accepted mitigation that there was an element of self-defence in Lee’s actions.

A minimum sentence of 25 years, the starting point for such an offence, was also lowered after the judge accepted the killing wasn’t pre-meditated.

Lee will serve at least 19 years behind bars before being eligible for parole.