South Shields man David Rogers found guilty of brother’s murder

David Rogers, 33, was found guilty of murdering Thomas Rogers, 26, while 30-year-old Samuel Rogers was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter after a trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

Two other defendants, Ryan Hurt, 22, of Peel Crescent, Mansfield, and 22-year-old Macauley Welby, of no fixed address, were both cleared of murder.

The four-week trial was told a stab wound penetrated Thomas Rogers’s heart when he was attacked while sitting in the passenger seat of a car in Mill Pool Way, near Birmingham’s Bristol Road, on August 22 last year.

The killing, which took place a day after windows were smashed at Samuel Rogers’ Nottinghamshire home, was said to have been motivated by a feud sparked by a “number of reasons” which led to the victim falling out with several relatives.

At the start of the trial, prosecutor Michael Burrows QC told the court: “David Rogers told the police he wasn’t involved in killing his brother – that he was elsewhere.

“That was a lie and I understand he has now changed his account and accepts he had a knife and accepts that he unlawfully killed his brother, but didn’t intend to kill him or cause really serious injury.”

Jurors were told Samuel Rogers accepted he was armed with a knife but claimed he was unaware his older brother had harmed anyone.

Still images from CCTV cameras at a care home were also shown to the jury, including one of a Ford Ka which blocked the path of the black Vauxhall Astra Thomas Rogers was sitting in.

Jurors were told the victim was pronounced dead in hospital shortly after being stabbed, and that David Rogers, of Nora Street, South Shields, was arrested in a wooded area in Haltwhistle, Northumberland.

The court also heard that Samuel Rogers, of St Michael’s Street in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, was arrested in the early hours and told police he had been in Nottingham.

Both brothers will be sentenced in October.

Macauley Welby, of no fixed address, and Ryan Hurt, of Peel Crescent, Mansfield, who had also been accused of murder, were found not guilty following the trial.

Detective Inspector Stuart Mobberley, from WMP’s Homicide Team, said: “It took just 30 seconds and one single knife wound to kill, Thomas. And now two people will spend years in prison for their part in this crime.

“When we say there are no winners in knife crime, this could not be truer in case. A mother has lost not just one, but three sons as a result of this heinous crime.”