British boys beat homeless man to death

Three British youths who had beaten a homeless man to death while he was sleeping rough outside a supermarket in Liverpool have been jailed at Her Majesty’s Pleasure, local media reported.

The homeless man, Kevin Bennett, 53, died 6 days after the unprovoked attack on January 23 by three boys including brothers Connor Doran, 17, and Brandon Doran, 14, and their friend Simon Evans, also 14.

Now, they have all received jail sentences as follows: Connor Doran was sentenced to a minimum 12 years, Evans was ordered to serve at least eight years and Brandon Doran received six years for acting as look-out during the attack.

During their trial at Liverpool Crown Court, the jury was told that Connor had goaded Evans by saying: “I bet you haven’t got it in you to do him in.” Evans later told his friend: “I started kicking him, I booted him and now he’s dead,” the court heard.

Passing sentence, Judge Clement Goldstone QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, said: “I think it is a desperately sad reflection on this society that each of you was party to serious violence purely for the sake of it.”

The Doran brothers’ mother, Linda Doran, 42, was jailed for 30 months after being convicted by the trial jury of perverting the course of public justice by providing false alibis for her sons.

Her eldest son, Ryan, 23, was convicted of murder and jailed for life last October after he attacked a complete stranger with a bottle in a takeaway.

“You have another son who is serving life for murder. There are not many parents who have that sort of personal agony to bear. But then again not that many mothers would have shown themselves to be either so unwilling or unable to shoulder the responsibility of motherhood as you have”, the judge told the mother.