Father and son guilty of hit-and-run revenge killing

Martin and Shaun Breeze were found guilty of multiple offences

A father and son have been found guilty of killing a man in a hit-and-run revenge attack.

Brian Darby, 60, was killed and three others were injured when Martin Breeze, 57, ploughed his van into them in Ingleby Barwick.

Prosecutors said he targeted the group after they had remonstrated with his 29-year-old son Shaun.

Breeze was found guilty of murder and four counts of attempted murder, while Shaun Breeze was found guilty of manslaughter and three counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

He was also found guilty of one count of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent and will be sentenced, along with his father, on 2 August.

Brian Darby was killed when a van was deliberately driven into a group of people

Prosecutors said Mr Darby was well known and liked in Ingleby Barwick and had been killed "for no good reason".

He and his friends had just left the 3 Rivers Bar in the town at about 23:30 GMT on 9 February when Shaun Breeze, who was out to buy cocaine, cycled through them.

Several of Mr Darby's group shouted at and chased Shaun Breeze, who fled and called his father.

Martin Breeze, who had spent the day consuming large amounts of drugs with his son, got into his uninsured Citroen Berlingo van, picked up Shaun and "mowed down" Mr Darby and three other people, narrowly missing a fifth.

One of the victims, a 16-year-old boy, was flipped into the air and landed on his head, while a man and woman suffered serious injuries including multiple broken bones.

Mr Darby was carried about 490ft (150m) on the front of the van before falling off in the road where he died, the murder trial heard.

The Breezes abandoned the heavily damaged van a few streets away, then ran back to their home on Owls Grove to take more drugs.

The following morning they rang police to report the van stolen in a "brazen attempt" to "get away with murder", prosecutor Nick Dry had told the court.

Martin Breeze claimed he lost control of the van while he was "off his head" on drugs and that the crash was an accident.

But prosecutors said the vehicle was driven straight at the group with tyre tracks showing clear evidence it did not try to steer away or brake.

Shaun Breeze had denied "assisting or encouraging" his father to target the group, but prosecutors said he had pointed out the victims to the driver.

Jurors reached their verdict after about four hours of deliberation following a two-week trial.

Both father and son were also found guilty of perverting the course of justice in relation to their false report of the van being stolen.

'The pain of a trial'

Mr Darby's family said the guilty verdicts would "hopefully serve as some sort of justice" for him.

But, they added, the result would "not bring our Brian back, nor lessen the pain and anguish we have suffered in losing him and we will continue to suffer forever".

They thanked the passers-by who tried to give aid to Mr Darby and the people who gave information to police.

"It gives us comfort to know that there are still kind and caring people in our community, a stark contrast to those who took his life away and through their denials put our family through the pain of a trial in order to save themselves.

"For those individuals we have no words."

Det Insp Matt Hollingsworth of Cleveland Police said Mr Darby's death was "senseless" and "purely an act of revenge".

He praised Mr Darby's family, adding: "I hope they can in some way start to rebuild their lives after the pain they have all gone through."