Teen who stabbed Michael Keen to death over drugs debt jailed for 12 years

A jury found Daniel Bamford, 18, guilty of the manslaughter of Michael Keen after hearing how he had stabbed him 15 times in his Darwen home.

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During a trial the court heard how Mr Keen, 42, had collapsed in the front garden of his home in Hazel Avenue after the attack on August 25 and was pronounced dead.

Reading a victim impact statement to the court Mr Keen’s mother Jackie said how her daughters Michele and Tracey watched their brother die alone through a police cordon and only knew he had been confirmed dead when paramedics put a blanket over his body.

Addressing Bamford, Mrs Keen said: “You took a son from his mother, a brother from his sisters and an uncle from his nieces and nephews. We want you to know how much pain you have brought on our family.”

During the trial at Preston Crown Court the jury was told how three days before Mr Keen’s death Bamford had been ‘installed’ at the house Mr Keen shared with his partner Anne-Marie West, to recover a £1,000 drugs debt the victim owed to a Liverpool drugs gang headed up by a man named only as ‘Brian’.

On the day of the stabbing Bamford had made a phone call to his ‘boss’ and the couple feared they would be forced to pay the debt immediately.

Bamford had always claimed the stabbing happened when he was defending himself, having woken up to Mr Keen hitting him over the head with a metal bar and his partner Anne-Marie West, 42, holding a knife to his throat.

Mr Keen suffered 15 stab wounds, including 10 to his back.

The court was told Miss West also suffered a stab wound to the back and one to the arm during the incident on August 25.

However Bamford was cleared of wounding Miss West with intent.

The court heard Bamford had injuries to his ear, face, arm and elbow which he said were as a result of the attack by Mr Keen.

He called friends to help him escape and was arrested by police the next day.

Paul Swift, 44, of Hinckley Road in St Helens, and Reece Hignett, of Kimberley Avenue in St Helens, pleaded guilty to assisting an offender.

Swift was jailed for 52 months and Hignett was sent to a young offender’s institution for 30 months.

Bamford, of Harvey Lane, Golborne, near Warrington, pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to supply and supplying cocaine and heroin at an earlier hearing. He was given six years’ imprisonment in relation to each of those offences, to be served concurrently to the 12-year manslaughter sentence.

But with the authors of the psychiatric reports having deemed Bamford a dangerous offender who posed a ‘significant risk of causing serious harm to the public’ and someone with psychopathic traits who had shown little remorse Judge, the Honourable Mr Justice Peter Fraser, imposed an extended sentence.

That means Bamford will be on licence for a period of four years upon his release.

Mr Justice Fraser said: “Organised drug gangs prey on the weak and vulnerable addicts in society.

“They encourage and cause addiction and they profit from it.

“It’s not over-stated that drug dealers such as you cause misery, destitution and despair.”

“You reacted in the way you did because you were affronted in their audacity to challenge you.”

Speaking after the hearing, Detective Inspector Zoe Russo said: “We remain committed to tackling organised crime groups in Lancashire and will not tolerate this behaviour in our county.”