Man jailed for stabbing neighbour to death after long-running dispute in Midgley

An "obsessive" man who stabbed his neighbour to death after a long-running dispute has been jailed.

Samuel Moore, 55, attacked Karl Williams at the block of flats where they lived in Pleasant View, Midgley, near Halifax, on 31 October last year.

Moore initially called police to report an argument with his neighbour, Karl Williams. He said Mr Williams was banging on his door and shouting.

While the call operator was logging up the report, Moore went to stand in the doorway of his flat and a fight broke out between him and 58-year-old Mr Williams.

The court heard he struck several blows to the defendant while he remained on the phone to the police.

The line cut off, before Moore called back just minutes later and told the operator he had stabbed Karl. He claimed he had done so "in self defence."

Emergency services found the victim critically injured, and he died at the scene.

The court heard Mr Williams had suffered 17 stab wounds.

Jurors heard Moore and Mr Williams had reported each other to police several times before the incident. Their dispute involved "incidents involving the garden and domestic waste and others involved threats and assaults", the court heard.

Moore was found guilty of manslaughter following a six-day trial.

and he was handed a 13 year prison sentence.

A number of victim personal statements from Mr Williams' loved ones were read in court, including from his fiancée Sheila Bailey, who lived in the same block of flats.

She said: "We often spoke of how lucky we felt to have found each other.

"He was there when I got diagnosed with cancer and the sensitive side of him shone through when I got the all-clear. Sometimes the feeling of regret comes over me for not being able to do more to save his life...I never thought our lives together would end in such tragedy."

Jailing Moore for 13 years, Judge Robin Mairs said his actions came from an obsession with Mr Williams.

"Your behaviour was obsessive," he said. "You had a choice and you made a choice to inflame the situation by leaving your flat armed with a knife."

Det Insp Eleanor Buchanan, of West Yorkshire Police, said: "What appeared to be a relatively low-level neighbour dispute took a violent and tragic turn, resulting in the loss of a life. There can never be any justification for those who seek to settle their differences with extreme violence such as this."