Three men jailed for a combined total of 50 years for the killing of Michael Phillips from Hartlepool
Three men have been sentenced to a combined total of fifty years in prison for the killing of Michael Phillips from Hartlepool.
Lee Darby, Neil Elliott and Anthony Small were all found guilty of the unlawful killing of Michael Phillips in Hartlepool last year.
A jury at Teesside Crown Court found Darby, 32, guilty of murder on Tuesday. He was sentenced to life, with a minimum of 23 years.
Neil Elliott was found guilty of manslaughter and has been jailed for 15 years.
The 44-year-old was also given a six month sentence for assaulting Mr Phillips' friend Lee Hardwell, which will run concurrently.
Anthony Small, 40, was also found guilty of manslaughter and has been jailed for 12 years.
Verdicts were returned on seven men accused of murder in connection with the incident, following a six-week trial.
Four other men - Gary Jackson, 31, of The Darlings, Hart Village; John Musgrave, 54, and Sean Musgrave, 30, both of Wordsworth Avenue, Hartlepool; and Craig Thorpe, 36, of Young Street, Hartlepool were all cleared of all charges by a jury on Tuesday.
39-year-old Michael Phillips died after suffering serious injuries at a house in Rydal Street in Hartlepool on June 10 last year.
All seven men had denied killing Mr Phillips, 39, at his home on Rydal Street, Hartlepool on June 10 last year.
The prosecution said Mr Phillips was beaten to death with coshes, a knuckle duster, punches, kicks and stamps shortly before 9pm that night.
He died within a hour after suffering more than 50 injuries including 15 rib fractures, skull and facial fractures and internal bleeding.
The Crown said it was a vigilante "revenge attack" because it was wrongly thought he had burgled the home of Elliott's daughter .
"The prosecution say this was a case of street justice administered to the wrong person," the judge said.
In a statement, the Deputy Senior Investigating Officer Detective Sergeant Matthew Waterfield welcomed the verdict: