A MAN has been sent to jail for a minimum of 18 years after he was found guilty of the “premeditated and unprovoked” murder of Lee Andrew.
Thomas Brown, 42, was convicted unanimously by a jury today at Liverpool Crown Court of murdering the 33-year-old as his claim that the attack was in self defence was dismissed as a "tissue of lies".
The attack happened at Brown's YMCA flat in North Road, St Helens on the night of Monday, August 2, 2021, in which Mr Andrew was stabbed in the jugular vein in his neck.
During the trial, harrowing CCTV footage had been shown to the jury showed Mr Andrew banging on the YMCA reception on North Road door shouting for help, screaming “I’m dying”.
Thomas Brown
A witness who came to the aid of Mr Andrew said Brown, who has convictions for burglary, theft, shoplifting, criminal damage, having an article with a blade in public - half a pair of scissors - and supplying heroin and crack cocaine, later walked out of his flat and “nonchalantly” made his way up North Road.
North Road cordoned off following the stabbing
Another witness, James Allen, told the court that he and Brown had bought drugs together earlier that day when Brown was “acting slightly unusually” before hugging him and saying, “he was going to do something to make St Helens proud”.
Brown’s defence had claimed that when he returned to his flat with the drugs he found Mr Andrew, who lived at the Salvation Army hostel in Phoenix Brow, sitting there with two knives before he “flipped” with the accused stabbing him in the ensuing struggle.
However, less than an hour and a half after being sent out to deliberate the 12 members of the jury found Brown guilty of murder.
Judge Mr Justice Martin Spencer QC immediately passed sentence after the verdict came in.
He passed a mandatory life sentence and set a minimum term of 18 years for Brown, who stood in the deck in glasses wearing a grey jumper, to serve in prison before being eligible for parole.
Police outside the YMCA following the murder
The judge branded Brown’s claims of what happened in the flat a “tissue of lies” and said “I find both the attack and murder were pre-meditated and unprovoked”.
He added: “I’m sure the citizens of St Helens were sickened when they heard what happened in St Helens that night.”
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