TWO men have appeared in court charged with the murder of a man whose body was found following a house fire.
Kyle Gordon, 23, and Stephen Tiffin, 28, both appeared briefly in the dock at South East Northumberland Law Courts in Bedlington yesterday charged with murdering Jason Lockwood, 40, in Blyth earlier this week.
Gordon, of Plover Close on Blyth’s South Beach Estate, appeared at court yesterday morning and was represented at the hearing by solicitor Kyle Patterson.
Yesterday afternoon Northumbria Police announced that Tiffin, of Ingoe Close, Blyth, had also been charged with murder. He appeared before magistrates yesterday afternoon.
There was no application for bail and both were remanded in custody to appear at Newcastle Crown Court on Tuesday.
Mr Lockwood was pronounced dead after he was pulled from his flat at Nordale House, Cowpen Hall Road, Blyth by firefighters on Tuesday morning. Fire crews, police and paramedics attended the scene after a call from a neighbour in the flats, who reported hearing the smoke alarm going off and seeing smoke.
Mr Lockwood, who lived alone in a ground-floor flat, was pronounced dead at the scene and police launched a murder inquiry after a post-mortem examination had been carried out.
Detectives later revealed that he died following a brutal attack in his home, in which he suffered multiple injuries.
Police are trying to piece together Mr Lockwood’s last movements and are still keen to hear from anyone who has information. They should ring 101 ext 69191 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
Neighbours say Mr Lockwood had only lived at Nordale House for a couple of months.
Although he was battling an alcohol addiction and was unable to keep a job, police believe he did have friends in the area.
Det Chief Insp Bentham, who is leading the investigation, said: “A team of detectives are working to piece together information about Mr Lockwood’s lifestyle and the events that led to his death.
“This is a close-knit community and we are asking people to think back to the events of Tuesday and ask themselves whether they saw anything that struck them as unusual during the last week.”
The flats where Mr Lockwood lived were sealed off and neighbours told of how they saw him dragged out by firefighters.
