Corby drug addict Jamie Magee GUILTY of robbery that ended in a man's death

A Corby man who robbed a trap-house on the Shire Lodge estate, which ended in the death of his accomplice, has been jailed for eight years.

Following this afternoon's (Friday, March 5) verdict, a court was told how Jamie Craig Magee had 90 previous offences on his record and had been addicted to drugs since he was just 13.

Magee, of Cam Close, had been standing trial at Leicester Crown Court since Monday.

He had claimed before the jury of eleven this week that he had been dealing drugs out of the house in Derwent Walk with two friends - Jacob Sawa and Billy Hynds - and that he had only taken a bum bag because half of the £1,600 cash in it was his. He said his friend, and his sister's former partner, Wes Brown had turned up with him at the house to buy crack without any money before viciously beating Mr Sawa for 'disrespecting him.'

But after hearing five days of evidence, the jury did not believe him, instead finding that he had gone to the house on April 11 last year with Wes Brown intent on robbing the drug dealers. The court was shown horrifying images of Brown brutally beating Mr Sawa with a knuckle duster for several minutes while he was face down on a couch.

Magee then came into the window brandishing a kitchen knife before the pair escaped, Magee with a bum bag full of Mr Sawa's drug money stuffed up his top.

Father-of-four Wes Brown, 40, collapsed close by in Humber Walk after hurting himself during the brawl with his own Stanley knife. He died before he could reach the hospital, despite the best efforts of police officers and Paramedics who tried to save his life.

The jury took just an hour and five minutes this afternoon to find Magee guilty of robbery but not guilty of knife possession, deciding that he had not brought his own knife with him to the scene.

In mitigation, his barrister Paul Webb said: "The unfortunate consequences of this offence were obviously that Wes Brown met his death. Mr Magee will undoubtedly bear the load of that for many years to come.

"He had an addiction to Class-A drugs. At the age of 31 he realises that the unless he is able to rehabilitate from offending and drugs that his life is worth very little.

"He must address his demons. He, himself, admits that perhaps the best place for him is prison. It's an extremely sad state of affairs."

Sentencing him to eight years in prison, of which he will serve at least half, Recorder William Harbage QC said: "The fact that Jacob Sawa was a drug dealer is not justification for your actions in any way, shape or form.

"I am satisfied that you formed a plan to carry out that robbery. You were clearly a drug user at the time and Jacob Sawa was your seller. You were not in business with him but you got your drugs from him and from time to time your would run drugs for him in return for your own drugs.

"You'd seen that bum bag with all that money in it and you wanted it for yourself. You enlisted Wes Brown as the muscle because of his reputation.

"You took advantage of Mr Brown pinning down Jacob Sawa so you could take the bum bag.

"You must have seen Wes Brown bleeding heavily but I am quite satisfied you did not know he was fatally wounded."

Magee was given the maximum sentence possible for the category of robbery that his crime fell into.The court was told that he had only been released from prison three months before the robbery for a previous incident where he went armed to a shell garage in Kettering and demanded money.

As he was taken down to the cells, a defiant Magee shouted at the jury: "Thank yous for coming, peace out, see yous in four years."