Student killer gang is sentenced

Four people have been sentenced for the killing of a Leicester student who was stabbed with a broken vodka bottle.

Bradley Whitfield, 16, was also kicked, punched and hit with a metal bar.

Both Darren Carr, 35, and Lewis Faulds, 16, of Caldecote Road, were convicted of murder and sentenced to life and a minimum of nine years respectively.

Nicola Faulds, 32, of the same address, was jailed for eight years and Chelsea Faxon, 16, of Aikman Avenue, for five years, both for manslaughter.

The judge recommended Carr serves a minimum of 16 years.

The identities of the two younger defendants - Faulds' son, Lewis, and his girlfriend Chelsea Faxon - were disclosed after reporting restrictions were lifted.

Family comment

Det Chief Insp Phil Smith, of Leicestershire Police, said: "I've just spoken to the family following the sentences of the four defendants.

"They are just pleased that the whole of the court case and the sentencing is over.

"They want to move on with their lives although they realise that they themselves have got a life sentence which they will try to overcome over the next few years."

During the trial the jury heard that the victim's head was kicked "like a football" after he was attacked with the bottle in the early hours of 1 January this year.

Carr handed himself into a police station hours after the killing and told police "I am scum", the court heard.

"I have no excuse," he said. "I was drunk."

All four defendants denied the charges against them but jurors found them guilty after more than nine hours of deliberations.

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