By james art Twisted killer James Wheatley brutally unleashed a series of sustained attacks on vulnerable man Lee Irving before his agonizing death.
Lee, who was just 24, died on June 6, 2015, after being repeatedly attacked by a man who posed as his friend and was described by the judge as an “evil and brutal bully and coward”.
Now we look back at the brutal murder that shocked Tyneside.
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Lee, who had learning difficulties, was held captive in their Newcastle home where he was beaten, abused and drugged. After he died, the 24-year-old’s body was put in a pram and dumped near the A1 in Fawdon.
Lee grew up in the West Denton area of Newcastle with his mother Bev and three brothers Joe, Charlie and Owen.
He was diagnosed with severe speech and learning difficulties at an early age and was educated at Percy Hadley School, which caters for children with additional needs.
Brute Wheatley repeatedly pummeled the vulnerable Lee in a series of monstrous attacks that left him with injuries normally only seen in a car accident.
The disabled Lee was kept in a house for more than a week in a badly injured state and drugged before he was stomped on again and slowly died in agony.
Whitley, who was 29 at the time of sentencing, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 23 years. Wheatley was one of four defendants, but the only one to be convicted of murder.
His mother Julie Mills, his then-girlfriend Nicole Lawrence and lodger Barry Imray were convicted of doing nothing to help Lee and trying to cover up his death.
Mills was sentenced to eight years in prison, Nicole Lawrence received four years and Barry Imray three years.
Mr Justice Sull, of Newcastle Crown Court, told Wheatley: “You are a cruel and brutal bully prone to sudden and explosive acts of sustained violence. You aimed them at Lee Irving in particular, knowing he looked up to you and wouldn’t fight back or react.
“A number of witnesses, including some brave young women, have given evidence of intermittent episodes of unwarranted violence by you towards Lee Irving prior to the fatal events of May and June 2015. The trigger for this violence would have been minor matters of complaint against you, such as wetting his bed, whether it was in the bed he seems to normally share with you or in the so-called dog room downstairs.
The judge said there was a “major escalation of violence” on May 28 when Lee was left with fractures to his jaw and nose in the early hours.
Judge Sull said: “Later that day you carried out an even more vicious attack which fractured 21 of his ribs and caused a collapsed lung. Medical experts described the force that caused these injuries as similar to a car accident in circumstances where a seat belt was not worn.
“I have no doubt, in the light of the forensic evidence, that this was caused in particular by you pressing on him while he was lying defenseless.”
Wheatley made sure that Lee only left the house in Studdon Walk, Kenton Bar, Newcastle, under his strict supervision.
Through his mother, Mills, he put Lee on a cocktail of drugs to sedate him and stop him from leaving the house.
The judge said: “Meanwhile, as your voluminous text messages to Nicole Lawrence show, you planned to exploit Lee financially using his bank card, which you and she had obtained from Lee’s mother and, in your words, ‘knocked a lot of things on Lee’s map.
Lee was then attacked again between June 4 and 5, which left him with three more rib fractures, a refracture of an earlier fracture, and a bruised lung.
This further assault, combined with his existing badly injured and untreated condition, led to respiratory failure and his death in the early hours of 6 June.
Whitley then tried to cover up what he had done and had Barry Imray, also a vulnerable adult, carry Lee’s body away from the house in a pram to dispose of it.
Judge Sull said he could not be certain the killing was motivated by animosity towards Lee based on his disability, which would have increased Wheatley’s minimum term behind bars.
Although Whitley was the ringleader, the judge said of the three others who were convicted of causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult and conspiring to pervert the course of justice, Mills, then 52, was “significantly the most culpable”.
Mills was originally sentenced to eight years behind bars and Lawrence to four, but the pair’s sentences were increased to 10 and seven years at the Court of Appeal.
Seven years after Lee’s horrific death, Mills is back on the streets after being released from prison.