Police blame drink for violent deaths

Patrick Brown was a promising student

Detectives in County Durham are concerned about a growing culture of drinking and fighting which they blame for a series of deaths in the North-East.

One man is awaiting a sentence for the killing of a 21-year-old student. Five other men have died in street violence in County Durham and Darlington since March.

A 17-year old was also left critically injured after an incident outside a football club disco.

Detective Chief Inspector Alan French told BBC News Online: "It is the lack of reason for these assaults which is of concern.

"It seems to be that you cannot have a good night out until you have had a fight at the end of it."

Senior detectives in this force all admit they find the pattern particularly worrying

Det Sup Harry Stephenson

"Nobody involved is a winner... if you walk away you may not find yourself next morning on a hospital mortuary slab or in a prison cell."

Detective Superintendent Harry Stephenson said: "Both I and other senior investigators in this force are particularly worried by what we see as a growing culture which appears to be developing among the young men of the North-East.

"They go out for a drink, perhaps have too much, and then get involved in a fight.

"In some cases it has been just one punch that has resulted in the death of the unfortunate and often innocent victims who are caught up in the violence."

Patrick Brown, a Russian and European studies student at Durham University, had been celebrating a friend's birthday in Newcastle hours before he died.

His friends had got into a fight with Christopher Wooley on a train in the early hours of 1 March.

It was the second time that Wooley, a self-employed builder, had attacked a student.

Maximum sentence

A judge at Newcastle Crown Court warned him that he faced the mandatory maximum sentence.

Det Ch Insp French said: "Patrick Brown had not done or said anything, he was on the periphery of the fighting all the time.

"He was assaulted and fell through a fence... he slipped down and embankment and over a wall, landing straight on his head."

In March, Paul Simpson, 34, was walking home from a friend's house in Darlington when a man in a van gestured for him to come over, and then punched him.

Emerging trend

Mr Simpson hit his head on the road and died.

In June, 63-year-old father-of-three William Jackson also fell to the ground and died when he was hit while standing on the edge of a fight outside a working men's club in Brandon.

And in September Paul Smith, 18, tried to defend his brother from an unprovoked attack in the village of Thornley, when one punch lead to his death.

George Oliver, press officer for Durham Police told BBC News Online: "These are the kinds of incidents that officers are worried about."

Det Supt Stephenson added: "A trend appears to be emerging and the senior detectives in this force all admit they find the pattern particularly worrying."