Man who stabbed love rival to death is jailed

Jay Cotterill has been jailed for killing Richard Hunt

A man who stabbed another man to death in a front garden following a dispute over a romantic affair has been jailed for 11 years.

Richard Hunt, 37, from Ipswich, suffered fatal stab wounds to the heart and lungs at the Sutton Heath estate near Woodbridge, Suffolk, on 8 October.

Jay Cotterill, 43, of Ipswich Avenue, Sutton Heath, was charged with murder and pleaded not guilty. In the lead-up to the fatal altercation, the victim turned up on Cotterill's doorstep with a baseball bat and the pair had a fight.

After a four-week trial at Ipswich Crown Court, Cotterill was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter and was sentenced earlier.

The court heard Cotterill and Mr Hunt were known to each other, having both had relationships with the same woman.

Mr Hunt had been in a longer-term relationship with her for about seven years - ending in about 2016.

Her relationship with Cotterill, which was an affair as he was in a long-term relationship, had been more recent, beginning in about May 2023 and ending shortly before the events of 8 October.

On the night of the killing, the trial heard the victim, Mr Hunt, had banged on Cotterill's windows with a baseball bat before a fight ensued.

Mr Hunt sustained seven stab wounds and two of these - to the heart and left lung - proved fatal.

Mr Hunt banged on Cotterill's windows with a baseball bat before the fight, jurors were told

Speaking after sentencing, Det Insp Dan Connick, from Suffolk Police, said: "This was an unnecessary tragedy as a result of a situation that escalated very rapidly.

"Mr Hunt may have instigated the confrontation, but we have no evidence to suggest that he was making any attempt to enter the property where Jay Cotterill was residing.

"Cotterill made the decision to leave a place of safety armed with a knife and confront Mr Hunt outside.

"Unfortunately - as we have seen all too many times - when a knife is introduced into the equation, the consequences are often devastating.

"Whatever Jay Cotterill's intentions were, he is now a convicted killer and will spend many years in prison to reflect on the devastating events of that night."