Couple killed neighbour after two-year dispute

A married couple have been jailed for killing a "family man" in a neighbour dispute "with tragic consequences".

Father-of-three Paul Davinson, 49, died in hospital after he was attacked by Stephen Long and his wife Cheryl on Smithson Street in Rothwell, Leeds, on 9 March.

Stephen Long, 49, was jailed for eight years at Leeds Crown Court earlier, while Cheryl Long, 46, was jailed for two and a half years for her "substantially lower" role in the killing. Both had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Sentencing the co-defendants, Judge Tom Bayliss KC said they had shown remorse, "perhaps belatedly, having come to terms with the enormity of what you did to your neighbour".

Prosecutor Katherine Goddard KC told the court Stephen and Cheryl Long, of Prospect Place in Rothwell, had been in a dispute with their neighbour and the long-term partner of Mr Davinson, Michelle Downey, which stretched back to 2022.

Mr Davinson had played some role in the conflict, she added, with both sides making complaints to the police about the other, but nobody had been charged with an offence.

The "ill-feeling" the rows had generated were the "catalyst" for the confrontation which led to Mr Davinson's death.

Ms Goddard said he had been heading home after a day spent drinking with friends when he got into a conversation with three young men and, according to one of them, threatened to "smash the Longs' windows".

The Longs had also been out in Rothwell and overheard part of Mr Davinson's conversation as they made their way home, leading Stephen Long to confront the victim.

The pair began fighting and, after exchanging blows, Mr Davinson fell to the ground before he was punched and kicked to the body and the head, with Stephen Long holding him in a headlock for up to five minutes, Ms Goddard told the court.

The hearing was told Cheryl Long kicked Mr Davinson three times during that time and began recording him on her mobile phone while he was on the floor, pretending to be on the phone to the police.

According to a pathologist, Mr Davinson's death was a "direct consequence of the increased strain on the heart caused by the assault, including the headlock which caused the fatal cardiac arrest".

When he was arrested, Stephen Long told officers he had been trying to help Mr Davinson after he had fallen over and said: "You go to do something right and you get interrogated".

He "repeatedly" lied to police in his subsequent interviews, while Cheryl Long deleted the mobile phone footage and gave no details of the assault in her police interviews.

The court heard Stephen Long has numerous previous convictions, including two for assaults on emergency workers, as well as racially aggravated harassment and battery, for which he served time in prison in 2007.

Defending him, Mark McKone KC said there was "some mitigation in how the incident started", adding that his client was "remorseful".

Defending Cheryl Long, Rupert Doswell KC said the mother-of-four, who is also a grandmother, had no previous convictions and was of "previous good character".

She had drunk more than she normally would on the night of the attack, he added.

Judge Bayliss said her involvement was "substantially lower" than her husband's. He described the case as a "neighbour dispute with tragic consequences" and said the Longs attacked Mr Davinson "because you were drunk".

Judge Bayliss described Mr Davison as a "family man, who in the words of his mother, was a doting dad and a role model to his three children".

In a victim impact statement, Ms Downie said her husband was "kind, genuine, honest and reliable", describing him as "irreplaceable".

Det Insp Elly Buchanan from West Yorkshire Police said Mr Davinson's death was "absolutely tragic" and "shows all too clearly the terrible consequences that can occur when people use violence".

Judge Bayliss also made a restraining order for both Stephen and Cheryl Long relating to Ms Downey, which also prohibits them from going within 100 metres of Prospect Place.

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