My brother was knifed to death at home by his pal…court ‘loophole' meant we never got justice & killer struck AGAIN

The Sun

20-07-2025

WAYNE Keenan's body was draped over a breakfast bar in his Blackpool flat, where he'd been stabbed multiple times.
His pal Mark Oldfield had fled the scene, just yards from a police station, but two days later would hand himself in before being charged with murder.
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But in the middle of his trial the judge gave the jury the option to try him for the now defunct charge of manslaughter by provocation instead.
They took up the offer and Oldfield, from Leeds, was sentenced to just seven years in prison, and after early release would go on to viciously attack his next door neighbour with a pizza cutter - as well as at least one other offence with a bladed article.
Heartbroken sister Beverley Keenan told The Sun: 'I've spent more than two decades fighting this, trying to understand why it suddenly wasn't considered murder. He'd been stabbed in the back.
'There was no justice for my brother. I want an apology from the government, because it was their laws that failed to protect him and others in a similar boat.'
She added: 'As soon as Mark was released he attacked again.'
Beverley says she's never had a clear answer as to what led to her brother's death - and the weapon used was never found.
Dad-of-three Wayne - known to friends and family as Joey Evans, having adopted his stepdad's surname and his own middle name - had been allowing Oldfield to stay in his flat on and off when the deadly row erupted on June 4 2000.
Joey, 34, had, on a whim, moved to the Lancashire city from Leeds months earlier, after his mum Alison Evans and sisters Beverley and Julie had done the same.
His relationship with the mother of his youngest son had broken down and he wanted a fresh start.
Beverley explained: 'He turned up on New Years Eve 1999 and it was a right shock, because we weren't expecting to see him.
'I'd just moved into a new house, and he came and stayed with us all over New Year.
'We had a lovely time, it was the first time that all the family had been together since we were kids.
'He was gutted because he had three kids in Leeds but needed a fresh start. He planned to move to Blackpool permanently and fight for custody of his youngest, and we were going to help.'
Joey signed up to a local job agency and soon found regular work in factories, often working two jobs at once, days and nights.
'He was earning good money and then his mate from Leeds turned up,' explained Beverley.
Joey and Oldfield, then 36, stayed at Alison's home in Central Drive before her son found himself a flat on Chapel Street just half a mile away.
But by June, Joey and Oldfield's relationship appeared to have soured somewhat, and Beverley believes her brother had not seen his eventual killer much for some time when he arrived suddenly at his flat in the early hours of Sunday, June 4 2000.
'He turned up early Sunday morning, and stabbed Joey at nine o'clock on Sunday night,' she said.
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'Joey had had a bath that night, he'd ironed his clothes ready to go to work the next day, before being killed.'
Beverley recalls how half an hour after stabbing her brother, Oldfield 'casually' walked past her and sister Julie as they drove back to their mum's home after bingo.
'He was stood looking at me in the car, and because of my arthritis I couldn't wind the window down to ask him where Joey was.
'He was with a girl. We drove round to the back of my mum's old house, and we suddenly couldn't see him anywhere.'
What exactly happened during the tragedy is unclear. In her campaign to have the conviction upgraded, Beverley says she was told the court transcripts were destroyed after five years.
Reports in the Blackpool Gazette from December 2000, during the trial, say Oldfield alleged his victim had first gone for him with a knife.
He claimed Joey had also punched one of several women who were also in the flat at the time and had stepped in.
However, Julie Taylor, described as Joey's girlfriend, is reported to have told the court she saw Oldfield raise an arm and stab his victim four times.
While giving evidence, Oldfield had told the court how he and Joey had spent the day drinking and watching Formula One on the TV.
One article adds the defendant said he must have later fallen asleep and that on waking he heard screaming and crying.
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It says: 'Oldfield told the court he saw Joey punching someone called Mandy. The defendant said he took hold of him and dragged him into the hallway.'
However, Joey allegedly broke loose and headed back to the living room.
Oldfield said: 'Joey came back into the room. I saw a knife in the right hand. I thought he had run on to the knife [sic].
'From listening to the forensic pathologist I now believe I must have lunged at him and stabbed him in the chest, thinking he was going to stab me.'
In another article, the court is reported to have heard Oldfield claimed he was acting in self defence and had actually grabbed a knife from the coffee table after fearing Joey was going to arm himself, and used it to kill his friend.
In an article from December 23 2000, the day after Oldfield was sentenced for manslaughter by provocation, Beverley was reported as saying: 'Oldfield was known as Rampton in Leeds and butchered my brother.
'I am considering appealing to the Home Secretary about the leniency of the sentence.'
Mum Alison - who passed away in 2010 - had said: 'How in God's name could the judge sentence him to only seven years?
'He could be out walking the streets again in three years.'
Referring to the police, she added: 'We feel so let down by them.'
Early prison release and subsequent attack
Oldfield was released early from prison and in May 2009 was sentenced to eight years in custody for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, having attacked his neighbour with a pizza cutter.
Then in May 2011, while still on licence, Oldfield reportedly committed another offence with a bladed article and was given a 10-month prison term.
Beverley said: 'How many more times will he escape justice? Does he really have to take another life before someone listens?'
She has been campaigning ever since Oldfield was jailed for her brother's killing, for a tougher sentence.
'I started more or less immediately,' she explained. She said she was protesting outside Parliament and several Labour ministers at the time 'all walked past', and she appeared on TV.
'I wrote to everyone in Parliament and got a lot of letters back from a lot of MPs that agreed with me but they said you've got to go through your own.
'My MP tried his best but it's proving it. No solicitor would ever touch it because there'd been a trial. Even though the trial's gone wrong.'
The partial defence of provocation in English law, which could reduce a murder charge to manslaughter, was abolished in October 2010.
In April 2005 the double jeopardy rule came into effect in the UK, allowing for retrials in cases of very serious offences where new and compelling evidence had emerged after an acquittal or conviction.
Beverley said it wasn't until the new law came in that police came to see her, in part because she'd been collecting paperwork from the case, and asked for the court transcripts, which she didn't have.
What is manslaughter by provocation and double jeopardy?
The partial defence of manslaughter by provocation in English law, which could reduce a murder charge to manslaughter, was abolished in October 2010.
In April 2005 the double jeopardy rule came into effect in the UK, allowing for retrials in cases of very serious offences where new and compelling evidence had emerged after an acquittal or conviction.
'They said 'we're going to try him on double jeopardy'.
Beverley continued: 'They knew he'd murdered Joey, they knew it. I tried to get the transcripts but they said we've destroyed them after five years.
'You can find transcripts online from decades ago but Joey's have been destroyed after five years.'
Despite being on benefits at the time, she managed to save up the £5,000 needed to receive the transcripts before finding out they'd been destroyed.
She said police said, in the end, the potential for a new trial fell through on the basis of this.
'Really you'd think they'd do a new inquiry again,' she continued.
'The police said they were underfunded and couldn't keep going back and forth to Leeds. And that was that.'
She went on to say: 'I seem to have missed out every which way but loose. Every which way I go I hit a brick wall.'
She added: 'At the end of the day, it's us who are the victims, us who serve the life sentence, not them who do it.'
Having suffered a number of health setbacks, Beverley said her campaign has now been reinvigorated.
I seem to have missed out every which way but loose. Every which way I go I hit a brick wall. At the end of the day, it's us who are the victims, us who serve the life sentence, not them who do it.
Beverley Keenansister of tragic Joey Evans
Mum Alison died from brain cancer in 2010, while Beverley herself has struggled with rheumatoid arthritis since she was a baby.
'In the last 10 years I've had my two new hips and two new knees, I've had a lot going on in my life,' she explained.
'But the other day I just thought I should really get an apology off the government.
'That manslaughter with provocation was a mess, they knew it was a mess, they've admitted it was a mess, and that's the reason they abolished it because they knew murderers were getting away with murder.'
She added: 'I would like other victims in this situation to come forward.
'I'd love to get a group of us together like the Post Office crew, because someone needs holding accountable for this farce. It should never have happened.'
Attorney General
In an email from MP Chris Webb to Beverley in January, seen by The Sun, he told her: 'Provocation law, as it stood, was widely criticised for being outdated and susceptible to misuse.
'While its intent was to address specific circumstances, its application in other cases, including the ones you've described, led to unjust outcomes that failed to reflect the gravity of the crimes committed.
'I agree that the government must not acknowledge the failures of the past without fully examining their consequences and offering both accountability and redress.'
As a result, he wrote to the Attorney General on her behalf to 'highlight the importance of this issue'.
In April, Mr Webb then forwarded his response from Sarah Sackman KC, Minister for Courts and Legal Services, who said the correspondence had been transferred to the Ministry of Justice.
She said: 'You and your constituents may be interested to learn about the 'Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) Scheme' where the Attorney General can refer certain serious offences sentenced in the Crown Court to the Court of Appeal if they believe they might be unduly lenient.
'The Court of Appeal will then review the sentence and may decide to dismiss and replace it with a sentence that it considers more appropriate.'
However, she warned: 'The bar to increasing a sentence is a very high one.
'The Court of Appeal will only grant permission to refer a sentence in exceptional circumstances: for example, if the judge has made some gross error, or has passed a sentence that falls outside the range of available and reasonably appropriate sentences.'
She added the independent Law Commission are also 'undertaking a review of criminal appeals' and in June launched a public consultation in relation to reforms to the ULS.
Lancashire Police declined to comment when approached by The Sun.