Garden squabble between brothers ended in tragedy
ASQUABBLE between “chalk and cheese” brothers allegedly ended in murder when one of them plunged a knife into the other’s chest as their mother tried to separate them, a court heard.
Prosecutors say William Campbell was in a “drunken rage” when he stabbed younger brother Samuel to death at the family home in Sunderland.
A court heard tensions had built up between the pair over William Campbell’s opinions on Samuel’s dog and his sibling’s lack of a fulltime job.
After the pair had been drinking separately, an argument blew up in June this year which allegedly ended with Campbell knifing Samuel, 24, in the chest.
William Campbell is standing trial at Newcastle Crown Court, where he denies murder and claims his brother impaled himself on the blade.
Toby Hedworth QC, prosecuting, said Samuel spent a summer’s evening on June 17 in the back garden of the home he shared with his mother in Silksworth. He was drinking and listening to music on his phone by a fire pit.
Mr Hedworth said: “He was still there after midnight, when his brother, William Campbell, returned home from an evening socialising in Sunderland city centre.
“Their mother had gone to bed. “The two brothers argued, causing their mother to come downstairs and intervene.
“Samuel went back into the garden and the defendant followed him but not before going to the kitchen, opening a drawer and removing a kitchen knife, removing it from its sheath then, having gone back outside, plunging that knife into his brother’s chest and killing him.
“William Campbell doesn’t deny causing his brother’s death but suggests he only took the knife to protect himself and maintains his brother, in fact, came for him and impaled himself on the knife.
“He claims, notwithstanding the stab wound was so powerful it cut through the breast bone, he didn’t even realise he had injured him and when he collapsed he assumed it was because of the drink.”
Mr Hedworth says the home on Park Avenue was the family home where the brothers had lived with their mum, Carolyn Campbell, but William had moved to North Yorkshire for work.
The prosecutor added: “Mrs Campbell described the boys’ characters as being chalk and cheese, William having a short fuse and Samuel being more placid.”
Mrs Campbell did CPR on her son while they waited for an ambulance, but despite her efforts and those of a doctor nothing could be done to save Samuel.
Campbell told police “I stabbed him out of rage”.
A post mortem revealed Samuel suffered a single stab wound to the chest, which passed through his sternum and the ventricular chamber of his heart. The wound was 95mm deep.
Mr Hedworth said of Campbell’s claims to have acted to defend himself: “That was a quite deliberate lie, told to evade his responsibility for what he had done.”
Campbell, 26, of Allen Court, Stokesley, North Yorkshire, denies murder. The trial continues.