Suspended term for brother killer

The body of William West was found by police at his home

A teenager who stabbed his brother to death has walked free from court after a judge was told he had suffered years of bullying at his victim's hands.

Daniel West, 19, killed his brother William, 20, when he knifed him in the heart and liver at their home in Helmsley Street, Hartlepool.

West "snapped" after an attack by his brother, Teesside Crown Court heard.

He was given a 12-month suspended sentence, after earlier pleading guilty to manslaughter due to provocation.

The court was told William had attacked his brother and their mother Hayley Noble-Jones for years, and would frequently smash up their house.

Your punishment, I have no doubt, will be life-long Judge Peter Fox

Both brothers had been drinking when William attacked the teenager with a knife in November last year.

West had managed to grab the blade from his brother and in the struggle fatally stabbed him twice.

Judge Peter Fox, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, said the degree of provocation was "exceptional and extreme".

He said: "Your punishment, I have no doubt, will be life-long.

"It will be the lasting knowledge and awareness of the sorrow you have caused to yourself, but most especially, to your mother.

"Your own remorse is all too plain."

A statement from West, read to the court, said his brother had been "more violent than ever" on the night of the killing.

West will now live with his mother in Gloucester after his sentence was suspended for two years.