Banbury stabbing: Girl sentenced following love triangle murder

A teenage girl convicted of the manslaughter of a man stabbed to death in his back garden has been given a community sentence.

Keith Green was murdered in Banbury, Oxfordshire, on 13 February last year.

Mark Meadows, 25, of Banbury, and Travis Gorton, 20, of Hook Norton, previously received life terms for murder. Louise Grieve, 38, was jailed eight years for manslaughter.

The girl has been handed a two-year youth rehabilitation order.

She cannot be named for legal reasons.

The trial heard how on the night of the killing the defendants had returned from the pub to Grieve and Mr Green's home. Grieve was Mr Green's partner at the time.

Meadows and Gorton, both armed with knives, lay in wait for Mr Green and then stabbed him "at least eight times in a vicious attack".

The jury was told Grieve and Meadows struck up a sexual relationship which led to heated arguments between the men.

Meadows was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years while his half-brother, Gorton, was sentenced to custody for life with a minimum term of 17 years.

Grieve, of Howard Road, and the teenager were found not guilty of murder but convicted of the alternative charge.

Sentencing the girl at Oxford Crown Court in what he described as a "desperately sorry" incident, Judge Ian Pringle KC said her case was "wholly different" to her co-defendants, and that she had played a minor role.

He said her culpability was reduced by a "litany of factors", including her youth.

He also gave her a supervision order for two years, a rehabilitation activity requirement of 15 days, and put her under a curfew for two months.

Det Ch Insp Jon Capps said: "The involvement of a child in this incident is further reflection of implication of the horrific actions taken by Grieve, Meadows and Gorton.

"They have all been been given significant prison sentences, and I hope that following today's sentencing, Keith's family now have some solace in knowing that all of his killers have been brought to justice."

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