TWO teenagers involved in the death of a family man after a confrontation in the street near his North-East home were this afternoon jailed – one for life and the other for two-and-a-half years.
Declan Appleby, 18, was given an indeterminate sentence with a minimum of nine years after he was found guilty of the murder of Ron Sharples in Marske, east Cleveland on New Years Day 2008.
Hid friend, 19-year-old former removal worker, Scott Fullam, admitted manslaughter after the jury in their Teesside Crown Court trial last summer failed to reach a verdict on the murder charge.
Mr Sharples, a 52-year-old project engineer and father-of-two, suffered a fractured skull when his head hit the pavement during the incident described as “most regrettable and tragic” by the judge.
Judge Peter Fox, QC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, said: “Ronald Sharples was a good family man, highly regarded by those who knew him and his loss is a deep, personal and irreparable one.”
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