Prison for Rugby teenager who 'bitterly regrets' fatal Halloween stabbing

Rugby man Cain Jackson died after being stabbed to the heart when he turned up armed with a metal pole to confront a teenager he had clashed with earlier that day.

His young killer Ethan Tucker was originally charged with murder – but later pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to an alternative offence of manslaughter.

Tucker, now 18, of Meadow Road, Rugby, who had entered his plea on the basis that he had acted in excessive self-defence, was sentenced to four years and four months detention.

Prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith told the court via a video conferencing facility: “Cain Jackson died from a single stab wound while he was on the drive of the defendant’s address on the 31st of October last year.

“About an hour before he died Cain Jackson had been in a car with his mother on the way to the shops when the defendant rode his bike in front of them, quite wrongly.”

Mr Jackson’s mother sounder her horn, in response to which Tucker made a one-finger gesture – at which Mr Jackson got out of the car and the two of them began to fight.

His mother tried to separate them and got struck by the defendant, and as the fight continued Mr Jackson tried to throw Tucker off the bridge they were on.

Tucker struck out with a pocket knife he was carrying, although no injury was caused, and fled the scene.

He hid in a garden, and the occupants of the house, who described him as appearing frightened, gave him a lift home and asked whether he wished to call the police – but he declined, saying that would ‘only make things worse.’

Meanwhile Mr Jackson, angry about what had happened, had told someone: “He’s going to get what he gets.”

He picked up Tucker’s bike and began riding it up and down, and when his mother tried to calm him down, he responded by telling her: “F*** you, you’re another one on my case.”

Mr Grieves-Smith said: “He wanted a further confrontation and made his way to the defendant’s house carrying a steel pipe and wearing a face-covering.”

Tucker’s sister saw him in the street, and he ran across the road, calling her a ‘fat bitch’ and punched her to the face.

She ran inside and told her mother what had happened and, hearing that, Tucker went outside, having armed himself with a large kitchen knife.

“He knew Cain Jackson wished to confront him, and the defendant was equally willing to fight, taking a knife with him,” commented Mr Grieves-Smith.

“What he should have done is taken the advice to dial 999 or stayed inside the house, but he went outside and used the knife without any lawful justification.”

Within seconds of him going out there was a confrontation during which Tucker was struck several times over the head by Mr Jackson with the metal pole, suffering a gash to his head.

But during the struggle Tucker ‘used that knife to lethal effect,’ and Mr Jackson fell to the ground fatally wounded, dying from a single stab wound which penetrated the lung and his heart.

An ambulance crew was unable to save him, and meanwhile Tucker, who had ‘a significant head injury,’ had gone to hospital where he was arrested.

Mr Grieves-Smith said Tucker had no previous convictions, but Mr Jackson was on licence from an eight-year sentence he had been given in 2015 for wounding with intent – and had been arrested in September last year accused of attacking another man with a metal pole, although he was not charged over that.

Rachel Brand QC, defending, said: “The incident on the bridge reflects no glory on anyone, but by the time Cain Jackson had jumped out of his mother’s car he was determined to attack the defendant, and did so.

“It was obvious Cain Jackson was getting the better of him, and was trying to throw the defendant over the bridge into the river. The drop looks as if it’s at least 10 or 12 feet.

“The defendant managed to get away. Yes it’s true he had produced a knife in order to ward off the attack, but against the context of someone trying to throw him off the bridge.”

Of what happened next, Miss Brand said: “Of course it would have been better if he had remained in his house, but we all know that 17-year-olds do not necessarily make the best decisions.

“He was struck several times by the deceased using that metal pole. He had been threatened and attacked by him before, and he knew he had a previous conviction for a very serious offence.

“In the heat of those few moments that’s when the defendant’s actions converted from having a right to defend himself to crossing that line and using excessive force.”

Miss Brand said that afterwards Tucker, who ‘bitterly regrets’ what happened, went to his biological father who took him to hospital and contacted the police to tell them where they were.

Sentencing Tucker, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano explained that if he had been an adult, he would have been facing an eight-year sentence – but, in accordance with guidelines, that was reduced because of his age and his guilty plea.

After referring to the incident on the bridge, she told him: “Cain Jackson, who was clearly very angry, pursued you to your home for a further confrontation.

“It was dark by now. It was Halloween, and children were out on the streets trick-or-treating.

“I accept you were in fear of Cain Jackson... a man who was older than you who you knew had a history of serious violence.

“He was confronted by your sister and he punched her. You knew he had done that when he arrived at your house.

“It was then you made the fatal mistake to decide to go out onto the driveway to confront him carrying a large kitchen knife.

“There was a brief struggle in the course of which he struck you a number of times with the pole before you stabbed him once to the chest.

“Cain Jackson was 24. Many things have been said about him, but the importance for his family, who I am quite sure were devastated by his death, was that he was a much-loved son and brother and partner.

“You did not intend this tragedy to happen. You have found it very difficult to come to terms with what has happened.

“The sentence is not intended to put a value or price on Cain Jackson’s life.

"No sentence passed by any court could do that, and any sentence I pass is bound to seem woefully inadequate to his family.”