Three men and a woman jailed for life after father, 33, is battered to death with a metal bar
Three men and a woman in their 30s are jailed for life after father, 33, is hunted down and battered to death with a metal bar
- Warren Glover, 33, found unconscious on the street and died three weeks later
- He was hunted down and battered to death with a metal bar in June last year
- Brother and sister Aaron and Melissa Stubbs given life sentences at crown court
- Their friend Stephen Strutt and his brother-in-law Peter Walker also convicted of ‘joint enterprise’ murder alongside the siblings
Three men and a woman from Manchester have been jailed for life after a doting dad was hunted down and battered to death with a metal bar.
Warren Glover, 33, was found unconscious on a street and died three weeks later in hospital.
Mr Glover’s family spoke of their grief and loss as brother and sister Aaron and Melissa Stubbs received life sentences at Liverpool Crown Court.
Both were convicted of ‘joint enterprise’ murder last week, together with their friend, Stephen Strutt, and Strutt’s brother-in-law, Peter Walker.
All four denied the charges they faced but were found guilty by a jury after a trial.
Mr Glover had been in ‘a short intense relationship’ with Melissa Stubbs but they separated in November 2019, the court heard.
Warren Glover, 33, was found unconscious on a street and died three weeks later in hospital after he was battered to death with a metal bar
Mr Glover, it was said, started dating another woman at the start of 2020 but text messages showed he and Melissa Stubbs were talking about getting back together and had arranged to meet on June 12 last year, before she started to suspect he was seeing someone else.
By June 13 they had fallen out, a judge was told.
Tania Griffiths, QC, prosecuting, said: ‘Warren Glover started to send nasty and abusive texts to Melissa and her parents, Frank and Gail. But worst of all they were about her son.’
It led to Aaron and Melissa Stubbs telling Mr Glover they were coming to ‘smack his head in’.
The siblings, together with Strutt and Walker, drove to St Helens, in a Kia car after arming themselves with weapons.
The court heard that before they arrived, Mr Glover ‘armed himself with a lump hammer’, went into the street and ‘swung the hammer and damaged the car’.
Brother and sister Aaron and Melissa Stubbs (pictured) received life sentences at Liverpool Crown Court
Judge Denis Watson QC, sentencing on Friday, ruled they didn’t intend to kill Mr Glover while driving from Manchester, but did intend to cause him grievous bodily harm.
He said: ‘Before he tried to run off, Aaron Stubbs got out of the car with the bar and Peter Walker with the baseball bat.
‘Aaron Stubbs then struck Warren Glover over the head from behind with a heavy blow, a very heavy blow.’
The judge added: ‘Four people set off in a car on a 30 mile trip and take weapons.
‘The idea, as the defendants proposed, there was no discussion about what was going on was absurd.
‘These four people set off from Manchester on a 30 mile trip to inflict grievous bodily harm.’
Judge Watson said that although there was ‘some planning’ it ‘wasn’t a long-held plan’.
He said it was ‘clear on the evidence’ there was an ‘escalation in emotional temperament at some point prior to the parties attending’.
Mr Glover was left unconscious and suffered a fractured skull in the attack at around 10.15pm on June 13 last year and later died in hospital on July 7.
Judge Watson said the text messages were ‘offensive and provocative’ but as the attack ‘occurred nearly two hours later’, it ‘suggests to me it was vengeance rather than a spur of the moment over reaction’.
The siblings were both convicted of ‘joint enterprise’ murder last week, together with their friend, Stephen Strutt (left), and Strutt’s brother-in-law, Peter Walker (right)
Melissa Stubbs, 30, of Burnage, was jailed for life with a minimum of 20 years and six months.
Aaron Stubbs, 30, was jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years and six months.
Strutt, 39, of Stalybridge, Tameside, was jailed for life with a minimum of 20 years.
Walker, 31, of Wythenshawe, was jailed for life with a minimum of 20 years and six months.
Strutt’s girlfriend Sarah Clarke, 30, was found guilty of assisting an offender after helping hide him in a hotel.
Clarke, who denied the charge she faced, was bailed and will be sentenced next month.
Detective Inspector Jackie Guinness said afterwards: ‘Our enquiries led us to Manchester and it soon became apparent that the group had made a series of arrangements and plotted to travel to Thatto Heath together to commit the attack on Mr Glover.’ Merseyside Police said it was a ‘brutal assault’.
Jackie Glover, Mr Glover’s mum, thanked residents who gave her son first aid and contacted the emergency services.
‘I am really proud of Warren for him being a really great dad and for being brave enough and seeking help and support for his mental health problems,’ she said in a statement after the sentencing hearing.
‘Warren was my everything, the reason I got up each day, without him I feel lost, broken and empty.
‘I will be forever grateful for his life and I wouldn’t change a thing about him.’
