The Garry Newlove killers: Web of lies which exposed them

Jan 17 2008

These were the gang members who were convicted of murdering Garry newlove:

Adam Swellings

Nicknamed “Swellhead” by the gang of young teenagers he led, 19-year-old Adam Swellings replied “fair enough” when told he was being arrested for the murder.

Swellings was on bail for two earlier offences and banned from Warrington when he attacked Garry Newlove.

He had been released from custody just hours before the attack.

In March 2006, Swellings and Sorton attacked a youth and he was still on bail for this assault when he committed the further offences of criminal damage, assault and resisting arrest.

He was remanded in custody on August 1, but on Friday August 10 was bailed by a judge at Warrington Crown Court.

He was freed on condition that he stay away from Warrington but Swellings never left the town. Instead he met up with Sorton and Cunliffe and began their drink and drugs binge.

As the oldest in the group, he took it upon himself to lead the confrontation with the father of three, arrogantly telling him to “get back inside”.

Lying to interviewing officers, Swellings said he had simply tapped Mr Newlove on the shoulder.

But the evidence showed he threw the powerful first punch, having approached the defenceless and barefoot victim from behind.

Swellings, egged on by the other gang members shouting “Get him” and “Do him Swellhead”, knocked Mr Newlove to the ground.

The teenager told police he had drunk four litres of cider and smoked five cannabis cigarettes that night, paid for with his dole money.

Swellings eventually admitted his part in the attack, pleading guilty to manslaughter. But his bid to escape justice was rejected by the prosecutors, who insisted he be tried for murder.

The jury proved them right.

Stephen Sorton

Stephen “Snowy” Sorton always knew that despite the web of lies he spun in the aftermath of Mr Newlove’s murder, justice would catch up with him.

Sorton, 17, had consumed nine or 10 bottles of Stella Artois and one three-litre bottle of Frosty Jacks cider in the hours before the attack.

When police caught up with him later that night, he claimed he had witnessed the assault but tried to help Mr Newlove and his family.

But conscience also caught up with him and he eventually confessed to his mother that he had been part of the attack but even then not the whole truth - perhaps because of the drink he could not remember.

Margaret Sorton later gave a statement to police, saying she was sitting with him in Cheshire Police’s custody suite in Runcorn when he said to her: “I knew I wouldn’t get away with it.”

She said she asked him what he meant by that and he told her he “knew he would get charged”.

She asked him if he did do it and the teenager said he had “punched and possibly kicked a man”.

Sorton had indeed kicked the victim, with a force so ferocious that he left his training shoe under Mr Newlove’s body, where it was found by a neighbour.

Jordan Cunliffe

Jordan Cunliffe, who was aged 15 on the night of Mr Newlove’s murder, also denied any part in the attack, saying he was away from the main gang and further up Station Road North.

He admitted seeing Mr Newlove on the ground afterwards and said he directed police to the location.

But other members of the gang told how, shortly after the attack, Cunliffe bragged: “We’ve just banged a man and he’s not moving.”

Despite his age, Cunliffe was a key ringleader of the gang, and part of their earlier violent attacks on members of the public.

In one incident, they stopped a youth and asked him for a telephone number and as he reached for his mobile phone, they punched him to the ground.

In a precursor to the murder of Mr Newlove, the gang were described as behaving “like a pack of animals” by witnesses to the court.