RYAN PRESTON has today been sentenced to life imprisonment to serve a minimum of 22 years after fatally stabbing his friend Daniel Kennell in a drug and drink fuelled attack.
Judge Andrew Lockhart QC delivered his sentence at Warwick Crown Court this morning after hearing a moving speech from Daniel’s mother Amanda Bates, flanked by three of his sisters.
Preston (27) of Hermitage Road, Coventry, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of the 27-year-old during the incident near Daniel’s home in St Austell Road, Coventry, in July last year.
As we reported yesterday, after deliberating for 11 hours and 21 minutes the jury found Preston guilty by a majority of 11 to one.
Mrs Bates, delivering her victim statement to the court as Preston sat in the dock, described how her family had been torn apart from that fatal morning.
She said it was a task no parent should ever have to take.
She told the court of the moment she was called to tell her of the attack, and of how she wasn’t able to tell her son in his final moments how much he was loved.
She said, holding back tears, she would never get to see him grow old, hug his children or get married.
The judge commended her for her dignity.
He said in passing his sentence he was giving consideration to aggravating features, including the extent to which the murder was premeditated.
Having earlier fought, Preston had taken a knife from his car to seek out Kennell. The judge said that he had done so knowing that it could be used violently.
The judge also commented how witnesses had heard Preston say after the single stabbing, after the pair had traded punches: “I’ll stab you again, you f****** p****.”
Judge Lockhart also said he wished to send a message to the public that alcohol and cocaine binges were ‘not fun’ but could lead to criminality that could lead to lasting misery.
He said that without the weekend binge on drugs and alcohol, Daniel would still be alive today.
The judge added he was giving recognition to Preston being an exemplary prisoner since being remanded in custody, overcoming his drug addiction.
But he condemned Preston for his attempts to make Daniel out as a worse man than he was during the trial, saying he was more concerned with his own plight.
He addressed Preston directly, saying he had torn apart the lives of the bereaved family and the lives of his own family.
As Judge Lockhart delivered his sentencing, an emotional Preston shifted uneasily.
Preston’s mother, Tracey (54), of the same address, was found not guilty of assisting an offender knowing or believing him to be guilty of murder.
She had given him a lift to the scene of the attack and had driven him away afterwards.
The judge told Preston he had “used his mother cruelly” in doing so.
Judge Lockhart told the court of how, on that sunny Sunday afternoon, Preston had sought out his friend in retribution, stabbing him in plain sight in front of shocked witnesses, some children.
His 12cm folding knife, which he stored in his car for fear of violence, punctured Daniel’s heart, leaving a 4cm wound.
The judge said he walked away from a man he professed was his friend, leaving him for dead.
