Yahoo News Teens Sentenced For Murdering Homeless Man
Three teenagers who beat a homeless man to death following a dare have been sentenced.
Connor Doran, 17, his brother Brandon Doran, 14, and their friend Simon Evans, also 14, attacked Kevin Bennett as he slept rough outside a supermarket in Liverpool.
Connor Doran was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years, Evans was ordered to serve at least eight years and Brandon Doran received six years for acting as look-out during the attack.
The three boys, who all denied murder, were found guilty on February 26 following a four-week trial.
The two brothers showed no emotion as their sentences were being read out, while Evans fought back tears.
Passing sentence, Judge Clement Goldstone QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, said: "I think it is a desperately sad reflection on this society that each of you was party to serious violence purely for the sake of it."
He called the 17-year-old the "pack leader".
During the trial at Liverpool Crown Court, the jury was told that he had goaded Evans by saying: "I bet you haven't got it in you to do him in."
The court heard Evans later told his friend: "I started kicking him, I booted him and now he's dead."
During the attack on August 17, Mr Bennett suffered a fractured eye socket, a collapsed lung and a broken ribcage, which detached from his chest.
He died in hospital six days later.
A post-mortem examination found that the 53-year-old had died from blood poisoning after an infection set in, causing his organs to fail.
Prosecutor Alan Conrad QC said the three boys had been responsible for a "group attack".
"Mr Bennett had done nothing to deserve such violence," he said.
The Doran brothers' mother, 42-year-old Linda Doran, was sentenced to 30 months in jail after being convicted of perverting the course of justice by providing false alibis for her sons.
The judge called the woman, who is unemployed, a "pathetic and tragic character" who bears the responsibility for a "total lack of parental guidance".
Doran's other son Ryan, 23, was jailed for life last October after he murdered a complete stranger, Wayne Mitchell, 42, by attacking him with a bottle in a takeaway.
