POLICE have released CCTV of the drug and alcohol fuelled fight between Ryan Preston and Daniel Kennell in a Coventry park which would eventually lead to Kennell’s fatal stabbing.
The video also shows the moment Preston, 27, was arrested at his home.
As we reported this morning, Ryan Preston was today sentenced to life imprisonment to serve a minimum of 22 years.
Judge Andrew Lockhart QC delivered his sentence at Warwick Crown Court after hearing a moving speech from Daniel’s mother Amanda Bates, flanked by three of his sisters.
Preston of Hermitage Road, Coventry, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of the 27-year-old during the incident near Daniel’s home in St Austell Road, Coventry, in July last year.
Detective seargant Daniel Jarratt, from the Homicide team, said: “This case outlines all too clearly the terrible consequences of carrying a knife. Preston didn’t think twice about carrying and using one on 8 July 2018, as a result his so-called best friend lost his life.
“Tragically there are no winners in a case like this. Daniel was a young man who had his whole life ahead of him that was cruelly taken for no apparent reason.
“As Preston has been handed a life sentence today, his life and that of his family have also been irrevocably damaged by his actions that day.
“Although nothing will bring Daniel back, we hope this sentence brings some closure to his family, and sends a strong message to those willing to carry knives on our streets.”
Judge Lockhart said he wished to send a message to the public that alcohol and cocaine binges were ‘not fun’ but could lead to criminality that could lead to lasting misery.
He said that without the weekend binge on drugs and alcohol, Daniel would still be alive today.
The pair had spent the morning of July 8 last year visiting friends, drinking and taking cocaine.
But at 11.25am they were captured on CCTV fighting each other in a Caludon Castle Park, before Kennell left the scene.
Preston was picked up by his mother and driven to Daniel’s house on St. Austell Road where the two fought again.
In his rage, Preston had taken a knife from his car.
Judge Lockhart said that he had done so knowing that it could be used violently.
He told the court of how, on that sunny Sunday afternoon, Preston had sought out his friend in retribution, stabbing him in plain sight in front of shocked witnesses, some children.
His 12cm folding knife, which he stored in his car for fear of violence, punctured Daniel’s heart, leaving a 4cm wound.
The judge said he walked away from a man he professed was his friend, leaving him for dead.
He also commented how witnesses had heard Preston say after the single stabbing, after the pair had traded punches: “I’ll stab you again, you f****** p****.”
He then got in the car with his mother, who drove away.
Preston’s mother, Tracey (54), of the same address, was found not guilty of assisting an offender.
The judge told Preston he had “used his mother cruelly” in doing so.
