Skegness man found guilty of stabbing sleeping man to death

Richard Norris was found guilty of murdering Marcus Tott in Skegness in 2022

A man has been found guilty of stabbing to death a sleeping man in Skegness.

Marcus Tott, 47, was fatally stabbed with a kitchen knife at his flat in Grosvenor Road in December last year.

Richard Lee Norris, 54, of Alexandra Road, Skegness, had denied murder, but was found guilty after an eight-day trial at Lincoln Crown Court.

After the verdict, the court was told that Norris had 53 previous convictions for 184 offences, including a 28-month sentence in 2020 for burglary.

Norris had just been released from that sentence and had recently moved to Skegness when he murdered Mr Tott.

The court heard Mr Tott was stabbed in the chest while he was asleep in his own flat in the early hours of 2 December 2022.

A post-mortem examination showed Mr Tott had suffered a single 20cm deep stab wound to the right side of his chest.

Marcus Tott was killed while asleep at his flat on 2 December last year, Lincoln Crown Court heard

Norris claimed it was an accident after there was an altercation inside Mr Tott's flat during which they both wrestled over the knife.

He admitted that after leaving Mr Tott's flat he had put the knife in a drain on nearby Dorothy Avenue.

However, he denied being responsible for Mr Tott's death, instead giving police the name of a woman and claiming he had not been at the flat that night.

The court heard from prosecution barrister Jeremy Janes that the background to the attack was the breakdown of a relationship between Mr Tott and a woman Norris had previously admitted loving.

Under questioning from Mr Janes, Norris admitted he had found Mr Tott's behaviour towards the woman "disgusting".

'Life sentence awaits'

Following the verdict, Det Insp Adrian Czajkowski, who led the investigation, said Mr Tott's murder was "a brutal and senseless attack on a defenceless man while he slept".

"Mr Norris armed himself with a large kitchen knife from where he was staying and purposely attended the home address of Mr Tott in the early hours of the morning and stabbed him in his chest to seek retribution," he added.

Norris was remanded back into custody and is due to be sentenced on Monday 19 June.

Judge Simon Hirst warned him: "You know a life sentence awaits you."