Police appeal for help in Andrew Smart murder case

Mar 4 2010 by Sophie Doughty, The Journal

MURDER victim Andrew Smart was a loving, hard-working married father-of-two before alcohol abuse tore his life apart.

And police believe he may have been targeted in his home by bullying teenagers because of the drink problem which officers say led to the breakdown of his marriage.

How the intelligent former software engineer came to be battered to death in a Tyneside flat remains a mystery.

And as murder detectives appeal to the public for help in piecing together the last week of Andrew’s life, details of how his once happy life tragically unraveled have been revealed.

The 47-year-old, whose blood-covered body was found in a ground-floor flat in Sibthorpe Street, North Shields, died of multiple injuries following a sustained attack.

Three teenage boys have been arrested and questioned in connection with his death

But detectives from Northumbria Police’s Major Investigations Team, are now appealing to the public to help them establish what Mr Smart did and where he went in the last week of his life.

Det Chief Insp Peter Bent, who is leading the murder probe has released details of Andrew’s tragic life.

Originally from Tynemouth, Andrew left the North East to study and married a woman elsewhere in the country.

Together they had two children, and were happily married until Andrew, who had been a self-employed software engineer, stopped working and started to drink.