Three cold-blooded killers who stabbed knife crime campaigner to death are jailed for total of 40 years
THREE evil thugs who stabbed an anti-knife campaigner to death in a random attack were jailed for more than 40 years today.
Tragic hospital worker Morgan Hehir, 20, was knifed in the chest as he walked through a park with his pals after celebrating Halloween last year.
Rescue crews dashed to Pool Bank Recreational Park in Nuneaton, Warks., after receiving a 999 call to reports of a man bleeding in the street.
He was rushed to Coventry's University Hospital but he died a short time later.
Today Declan Gray, 21, was caged for 23 years and nine months after he pleaded guilty to murder during his trial at Warwick Crown Court.
His brother Karlton Gray, 19, and their friend Simon Rowbotham, 40, were both jailed for six years and nine months and eight years respectively after they admitted manslaughter.
Judge Richard Griffith-Jones told them: "The attack was wholly unjustified, it was ruthless and it was vicious."
Mr Hehir, who had campaigned against knife crime, was brutally attacked at 9.30pm on October 31 last year.
After the case Mr Morgan's family said in a statement issued by Warwickshire Police:"Morgan should be here today.
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"He was living life to the full and doing the things he loved; music, arts and watching Nuneaton boro' at the weekends after working all week at George Eliot Hospital.
"He was out with his friends having a few beers on the town.
"Declan gray, Karlton Gray and Simon Rowbotham changed everything in our lives - never to be the same again.
"With the help of our friends and family we have managed to get through these very dark times.
"We welcome the sentence of life imprisonment imposed on Declan Gray but we also feel we have begun our life sentence of 'life without Morgan'."
Jason Corden-Bowen, Acting District Crown Prosecutor from West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Like many young people across the country on Halloween night, Morgan Hehir and his friends were indulging in harmless socialising.
"However, their night ended in tragedy when they were set upon by the three defendants in an unprovoked and deliberate attack.
"The friends were targeted by the three who, including Declan Gray who was armed with a knife, launched an attack.
"Tragically this ended with Morgan Hehir, who had campaigned against knife violence, being fatally stabbed."
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