Teenager who stabbed his father to death on Christmas Day gets life in prison | UK news

A teenager has been sentenced to life in prison after stabbing a father of two to death in revenge on Christmas Day.

Kersharn Dockeray-Barnett, who was 17 at the time of the attack last year, murdered Reece Connor near Crown Island in Nottingham after they had a “disagreement” in an underpass, a court heard.

Dockeray-Barnett murdered the 29-year-old by stabbing him once in the chest with a knife.

The teenager, now 18, claimed he used the weapon in self-defence after Mr Connor was the “attacker” in their previous encounter, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

The jury rejected this and he was later found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 19 years.

Prosecutor John Lloyd-Jones KC said: “It is safe to assume that Kersharn Dockery-Barnett was angry about the events in the underpass that night and was seeking revenge.”

Judge Nirmal Shant KC told the accused, “There appears to have been a disagreement between you. From the evidence, I conclude that you approached him and killed him at the end of the encounter.”

“It is clear to me that the second encounter took place because you wanted to teach him a lesson compared to the first.

“They robbed two boys of their father. And she and his partner learned the devastating news of his death on Boxing Day, at a time when they should all have been together.”

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Dockeray-Barnett, of Marchwood Close, Nottingham, wearing a light blue tracksuit, stood in the dock as the judge read out his verdict and then blew a kiss to his family sitting in the public gallery.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Courtney Newton, Mr Connor's partner, said that for her and her children, “Christmas will never be the same again”.

She said: “My Reece could always make me laugh and would do anything to make me smile. Boxing Day 2023 is a day I will never forget.

“I am now a single father and am struggling emotionally and financially to raise my children. He was my rock and I was his. I miss his smile, I miss my Reece. Forever and ever, my love.”