Killers jailed for man's machete attack death

Two killers who were part of a group that chased a man down and fatally attacked him with a machete have been jailed.

Macaulay Branighan, 27, died in hospital three days after being pursued and set upon in Stockton in October, Teesside Crown Court heard.

His mother said she still did not know why her son had been killed and his family were "learning to live with a pain that does not fade".

Stephen Ward, 26, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years after being found guilty of murder. Samuel Tweddle, 22, who jurors convicted of manslaughter, was jailed for 10 years. A third man who wielded the machete is yet to be identified.

Tweddle suspected the victim had stolen drugs from him or his associates, Judge Francis Laird KC said.

When he spotted the victim outside the Spar on High Newham Road in the Hardwick area of Stockton at about 20:20 BST on 12 October, Tweddle rallied Ward and another man, the court heard.

Minutes later, the group began to chase the victim, with the unidentified male producing a machete and hacking at the fleeing man's back, the court heard.

They caught up with him in the front garden of a home on Westerton Green where the victim was "trapped", the judge said.

Ward tried and failed to set his dog on the victim, who was then punched, kicked and hit with the machete while lying in a fetal position on the ground, the court heard.

The judge said the attack was "vicious" and the victim jumped over garden fences in a "desperate but failed attempt to escape".

The attackers then fled, leaving the victim staggering up to a house to try and get help.

He was found to have suffered five machete wounds on his back and legs which caused catastrophic blood loss from which he died three days later.

When he handed himself into police several days later, the court heard Ward told officers: "I've had a haircut, been to see my kids, got some clothes, I know what I've done."

In a statement read to the court, the victim's mother said her life was still frozen in "the moment everything fell apart".

"The world around me continues to move forward but I remain stuck in the nightmare that began with a single phone call," she said.

She said she woke everyday with the same question burning.

"Why?" she said.

"Why did this happen, why was my child's life taken, why do I have to live with questions that will never be answered truthfully, only by excuses."

She said she would never get the "privilege" of weekly visits with her son or hearing "I love you mam" ever again.

The killers did not understand the devastation they had caused, the mother said, adding: "We are the ones that must live with it for the rest of our lives".

Her family were "learning to live with a pain that does not fade and a future which will never be what it should have been," she said.

Judge Laird said the "value of a life" could "not be matched by any sentence" the court could impose.

Though neither of the defendants struck the fatal blow, they both knew their accomplice was armed and "all three of you intended the knife would be used as a weapon to inflict injury upon" the victim, the judge said.

Tweddle must also serve an extra three years on extended licence.

Follow BBC Tees on X,Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram and listen to Radio Tees on BBC Sounds.