Family's shock as killer's sentence cut

May 24 2009 by Kim Carmichael, Sunday Sun

THE family of a man brutally murdered in his own home have told of their devastation after his killer’s sentence was cut.

David Ford was convicted with Christopher Boyle at Teesside Crown Court in May 1999 of murdering 26-year-old Dean Godfrey.

Dean died at his home in Darlington in July 1998 after being shot with a sawn-off shotgun and stabbed repeatedly with two knives.

After the killing, drug dealer Ford, who was 27 at the time, and Boyle poured petrol around the kitchen and sitting room and set fire to the house.

Both men were jailed for life and told they must spend 20 years behind bars.

However, Mr Justice Langstaff said at London’s High Court on Friday that, because of a ruling last year which saw Boyle’s tariff cut to 17 years, he had no choice but to reduce Ford’s minimum term to 17 years as well.

Now Dean’s heartbroken parents Brenda and Brian Godfrey, of Darlington, have ended their silence over their son’s death to speak out about their bitter disappointment.

Brenda, 66, said: “We are devastated. Our son can’t get out early. Ford and Boyle took his life and he can never come home.

“They have never once apologised for what they did to Dean and the rest of our family. The pain never goes away but this has brought it all back.

“Dean did get mixed up with the wrong crowd but he was still our son and I don’t care what anybody has done, they don’t deserve what happened to him.”

One week before he was killed, Dean found out that he was to become a father for the first time.

His girlfriend Michelle Coleman later gave birth to a baby girl.