Drug user who murdered ex-soldier in ‘cruel’ attack jailed for at least 11 years

A 32-year-old man has been jailed for life for the murder of an Iraq War veteran who he punched three times in a drink and drug-fuelled street attack which led to his death 10 months later.

Gregory Twigg was sentenced to a minimum term of 11 years after a court heard how he landed the “powerful and cowardly” punches on medically-retired British Army veteran Lee Woodward in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

The attack on the night of June 24 2022 left the former soldier severely brain damaged and he died in hospital on April 26 2023.

Twigg, who was already serving an eight-year and three-month prison sentence after pleading guilty in September 2022 to grievous bodily harm with intent, was found guilty of murder by jurors at a second trial which ended in July this year.

At his sentencing hearing Twigg was criticised by the judge for “stringing out” the case by pleading not guilty to murder, extending and amplifying the anguish of his victim’s partner and stepdaughters.

In victim impact statements read to the court on Friday, relatives of the 39-year-old victim described their feelings of pain and anguish during Mr Woodward’s “deterioration” in hospital.

Mr Woodward was someone who kept his family strong, they said.

The trial was told Mr Woodward had been on a night out with his fiancee Kate Griffin, and had left The Liquor Vaults pub in Trade Street minutes before her, when he became involved in a confrontation with the occupants of a Vauxhall Astra that had been driving past him.

In her victim impact statement to the court, Ms Griffin said: “My boy and us as a family went through hell.”

She added that the injuries caused to her partner had been “severe and cruel” and watching his condition worsen in hospital had been “absolutely horrific”.

Twigg, who admitted he had taken cocaine and had drunk vodka and sambuca, told his trial he had become angry after Mr Woodward had allegedly sworn at and threatened him and his friends as they were driving past him on their way to a night out.

Prosecution counsel David Mason KC said Twigg was “fired up on drink and coke and raging” when he attacked Mr Woodward, who he said posed no threat to the defendant, after the first punch left him looking “like a highly dazed boxer”.

CCTV showed Twigg knocking Mr Woodward, who was over 6ft, to the ground, before a second punch knocked him into a parked car.

A third punch delivered 32 seconds later left the victim unconscious in the road and Twigg fled the scene with his friends.

He was arrested less than an hour later in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Twigg told the jury he never intended to cause Mr Woodward serious harm and had only wanted to give him a black eye so that he would leave him and his friends alone.

He said he punched him twice more because he feared Mr Woodward was going to hit him back, and he was “devastated” that his actions had resulted in his death.

It emerged in court that Twigg has three previous convictions for battery between 2014 and 2019 and was jailed for 30 months in 2020 for making threats to kill and burglary.

Defence KC Ahmed Hossain told the court in mitigation: “Mr Twigg readily understands that he is going to receive a life sentence and offers remorse.

“He now understands not just the dreadful and tragic outcome of his violence but he also understands some of the triggers of that violence.”

Passing sentence on Twigg, formerly of Blurton, Stoke-on-Trent, Judge Roger Thomas KC ruled that the minimum term to be served from the point of sentencing would be 11 years.

The judge said the minimum term would have been 14 years, but time served and spent on remand meant it had to be reduced by three years.

The judge told Twigg: “Although you may regret the consequences of your unlawful violence in so far as the consequences are concerned for you, it is difficult to accept that you are truly remorseful in any wider sense.”

Twigg would have pleaded guilty to murder had he been truly remorseful for the “sustained and heavy” assault carried out in three stages, the judge said.

Speaking in July after the four-day murder trial, Detective Sergeant Garry Jackson said: “This is an extremely tragic case that has caused immeasurable pain and loss to Lee’s family.

“They have had to go through this ordeal in court on two separate occasions and I’m glad that we were able to secure this conviction for them after so much heartache.”