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 Tyrell Anderson, left, and Tommy Winston at the Aston Villa football ground in 1999, both aged 12. They had gone with Acland Burghley football team as finalists in a tournament |
Life for teen who killed boyhood pal
An innocent picture of school friends which belies the tragedy to befall them
A TEENAGER who stabbed one of his best friends in the back has been told he must serve at least 13 years of a life jail sentence.
Tyrell Frame Anderson, 19, – better known as Ty – was found guilty of murdering Tommy Winston at the Old Bailey on Tuesday.
Yesterday (Wednesday) Tommy’s mother, Dee Roberts, who lives in Athlone Street, told the New Journal: “We were happy that Ty got murder. It’s what we’ve been praying for. I was disappointed with 13 years, My life sentence is forever – he’ll get out in his 30s and he’ll still be young enough to have a life. My Tommy’s not going to have a life.”
She added: “I think lots of kids carry knives. I think there should be a mandatory sentence for carrying a knife. At the moment, it’s the norm.
“I hope that what’s happened to Tommy – because he was so well known and liked – will teach other kids a lesson.”
His Honour Judge Richard Hawkins, Dee Roberts, read a statement Ms Roberts had given to the court. It said: “Sometimes my heart is so heavy, it feels like breaking.
“I still can’t bear to think that I’m never going to see my beautiful son ever again. I hope he knows how proud I was of him. I was so proud to be his Mum.”
Anderson said he could not remember the frantic moments when he stabbed Tommy, 18, in the back three times.
Tommy collapsed and died on the pavement in Brecknock Road, Kentish Town, on January 3.
Anderson, of Camden Road, Kentish Town, admitted manslaughter but denied murder on the grounds that he had not intended to cause Tommy any serious harm.
He told the court: “Everything is a blur. I wasn’t thinking of anything. I was not really intending to harm him.”
But a jury of six men and six women took just two hours of deliberation to reach a verdict of murder.
It was later revealed that Anderson had previous convictions for cannabis possession and two offences of robbery and attempted robbery on schoolboy victims aged 13 and 16.
There was a shout of ‘yes’, applause, sobs and sighs of relief from the packed public gallery as Anderson was handed a life sentence.
He looked stone-faced as the judge warned him that he must serve at least 13 years in jail before he will be able to even apply for parole.
Judge Hawkins QC said: “I very much sympathise with his mother and all the family, and the girlfriend… It was a cruel and vicious act that you did. No punishment can ever reflect the loss of a life.”
Ms Roberts said Tommy had “an amazing smile that would melt even the hardest snow”, adding: “When Tommy was murdered, the whole community were stunned. I’ve had so many people expressing their sympathy to me in the street and letters from people I don’t even know.”
Tommy’s girlfriend of three years, Penny Jane Taylor also compiled an impact statement which was read by the judge.
She said: “My world feels like it has ended. I don’t see what I have to live for now Tommy is gone. I wake up every morning praying that its been a bad nightmare and I get so upset when I realise it hasn’t been.
“I feel cheated because it is so senseless that Tommy’s life is over. Maybe it’d make more sense if Tommy was a bad person and caused trouble but there wasn’t a bad bone in his body. Tommy would go out of his way to help people – even people he didn’t know.”
Anderson and Tommy had been old school friends, often part of the same Acland Burghley football team.
The case led to divided loyalties in Kentish Town where both were well-known.
During the trial arrest warrants were issued for three youths who were at the scene but were reluctant to give evidence because of their friendships with both Tommy and Anderson.
Two of them said they “feared reprisals” and the third told the judge: “I don’t feel safe since this happened.” He told of being menaced by hoodies carrying iron bars.
Tommy and Anderson’s own friendship broke down just before last Christmas when Tommy sold Anderson a mobile phone and thought he had been paid with a fake £20 note.
He responded by hiding scooter parts from Ty’s scooter. Anderson got his revenge by smashing the windscreen of Tommy’s prized Ford Fiesta car.
Owen Davies QC, defending, told the court the dispute had been “trivial” but had led to “over reaction and sensitivity”.
The pair came face-to-face as a group of friends watched an Arsenal football match on a big screen through the windows of the Unicorn pub in Brecknock Road.
When Tommy ran over to where Anderson was smashing his car with a claw hammer, a scuffle developed in which the two friends traded blows.
Dazed from the fight, Tommy was being helped back to his car when Anderson took a kitchen knife from his pocket and landed three swifts blows to his back.
Judge Hawkins said Tommy had been given no chance to defend himself. He died as an air ambulance surgeon tried in vain to re-start his heart.
Anderson told the court: “I had been up a couple of nights drinking and smoking cannabis. I had smoked quite a lot. I didn’t know how it affected me. Perhaps the cannabis I smoked made me paranoid, over paranoid.”
He added: “I was shocked and upset that Tommy had taken the panels and seats (of his scooter). I didn’t want to talk about it. I wanted to smash his car. It was not reasonable of me but I was a bit angry.”
At one stage during the trial, the jury were shown the blood-stained puffer jacket and hooded top that Tommy was wearing on the day he died.
After the killing – caught on film by a witness in a flat overlooking the street – Anderson cycled off with the bloodied murder weapon and evaded a police search by staying with friends.
Anderson said: “I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t call my parents because I thought the police might have bugged their phone.”
He gave himself up at Kentish Town police station a week afterwards, leaving a note expressing his remorse at a shrine of tributes and flowers just beforehand.
Ms Roberts said yesterday (Wednesday): “I’m quite hurt none of his so-called friends had the guts to come and speak up for him.
“If they were friends they would have been there. Ty went for manslaughter – that was just his way of getting the least sensible possible. He stabbed Tommy three times in the back. He should stand up and admit it. It was murder.”
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