Victim beaten to death with lengths of wood

Nov 8 2008 by Hilary Clixby, The Journal

A RAIDER has been convicted of the murder of a teenager beaten to death with lengths of wood in an unprovoked attack.

Kenneth Power and Graeme Duncan were looking for property to steal when they forced their way into Ross Davidson’s home on March 23 this year.

In the confrontation which followed, they repeatedly hit the 19-year-old about the head and body with the wood in front of his partner, Newcastle Crown Court heard. The pair fled after grabbing an X-Box console, leaving Mr Davidson dying from head injuries, the court was told.

Power had denied murder claiming he had only struck Mr Davidson twice on the legs with a stick handed to him by Duncan as they entered the flat in Grace Street, Byker, Newcastle. But, after a five-day trial, a jury found the 23-year-old, of Dunstonburgh Road, Byker, guilty. The jury was discharged from reaching a verdict on a second charge he denied of conspiracy to rob Mr Davidson’s flatmate David Wilson.

Duncan, 22, of Norbury Grove, Byker, had earlier admitted Mr Davidson’s murder.

Steven Gilbert, 22, of St Anthony’s Road, Byker, has admitted conspiracy to rob on a basis accepted by the prosecution he had acted as a look-out unaware of the violence being used inside the flat.

All three will be sentenced in the week of December 1. Duncan and Power face mandatory life sentences but the minimum term they must serve before they can be released on parole will be fixed by Judge David Hodson at the next hearing.

Power had told the court he had been out stealing copper when he came across Duncan and Gilbert by chance and Gilbert invited him to take part in money collecting “mission”.