'My brother didn't deserve to die in such an evil, cold and heartless way'

LEWIS Bell's family were sitting in the public gallery while his three killers “giggled, winked and blew kisses” at them in court.

- By ESTHER HALLIGAN

Branding their behaviour as “disgusting,” Mr Bell's sisters have spoken out about how sitting through the trial, and hearing graphic details of how their brother was stabbed to death, was the “hardest thing they have ever done.”

Sean Mcleod, Liam Matthews, and Ashton White chased Lewis Bell from a drugs den on Norton Road to Hills Drive, 160 metres away. As Mr Bell pleaded for his life in the Stockton street, he was stabbed to death, and attacked whilst he was lying on the ground, bleeding.

Mcleod, 23, was convicted of murder and has started a life term in prison; and Matthews, 26, and White, 18, were found guilty of manslaughter by a jury after standing trial in March.

They are serving 18 and 10-year sentences respectively. A fourth man, Macauley Wright, pleaded guilty to assisting an offender before the trial began and he was jailed for three years.

Emma, Amy, Chloe and Leah Bell could do very little as Mcleod, Matthews and White “winked and blew kisses” at them from the dock throughout the trial.