Newlove was attacked outside his house in Station Road North in the Padgate district of Warrington, Cheshire, on the evening of 10 August 2007, having gone outside to confront a gang of youths he suspected of vandalising his wife's car.
The murder was the culmination of numerous incidents of anti-social behaviour by youth gangs in and around Padgate, which had started several years earlier.
[7] Adam Swellings, 19, from Crewe, went on trial at Chester Crown Court charged with the murder on 14 November 2007, along with two 17-year-olds, a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old who could not be named for legal reasons.
The trial judge recommended that Swellings, Sorton and Cunliffe should serve minimum terms of 17, 15 and 12 years respectively – sentences which were widely described as lenient by the victim's family and friends, as well as the tabloid media – as these sentences meant that the youngest of the three killers could be out of prison by the age of 28, and the oldest was likely to be paroled in his mid thirties.
[10] Cunliffe later appealed against his murder conviction on the grounds that he had not taken part in the attack on Mr Newlove, although he had been present when it happened.
[11] His mother later questioned his murder conviction, claiming he could barely see the attack taking place due to a degenerative eye condition.
[16] In April 2022, the Parole Board recommended that gang ringleader Adam Swellings be moved to an open prison with day release provisions.