Retired war veteran Lee Woodward was tragically beaten to death by Gregory Twigg, 32, in Stoke-on-Trent. Lee was enjoying a night out with his partner when he was suddenly attacked
A “raging” man who brutally killed a British war veteran in a booze and drug-fuelled street attack has been jailed.
Gregory Twigg, 32, formerly of Blurton, Stoke-on-Trent, repeatedly punched Lee Woodward, who was medically retired. He was enjoying a night out with his fiancee Kate Griffin when he was suddenly targeted by Twigg in June 2022. Stafford Crown Court heard the couple had just left The Liquor Vaults pub, in Trade Street, when a few people sitting inside a Vauxhall Astra had driven past them.
They got involved in a row, with Twigg described as being ‘”fired up on drink and coke”, prosecutor David Mason KC said. He left the former soldier severely brain damaged and he died in hospital 10 months later.
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Twigg was already serving an eight-year and three-month jail term after admitting grievous bodily harm with intent in September 2022.
He was convicted by jurors of murder following a second trial, which ended in July this year. On Friday, he was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 11 years. The victim posed no threat to the defendant, while the first punch left him looking ‘like a highly dazed boxer’.
Footage from CCTV captured Twigg knocking Mr Woodward, who was over 6ft, to the ground. He then threw a second punch which knocked him into a parked car. A third punch delivered 32 seconds later left the victim unconscious in the road.
Twigg fled the scene with his friends, Stafford Crown Court heard. He was arrested less than an hour later in Newcastle-under-Lyme. In statements read to the court, Mr Woodward’s family told of their pain and anguish during his ‘deterioration’ in hospital.
The 39-year-old, who died in April 2023, was someone who kept his family strong, they said. Ms Griffin said: “My boy and us as a family went through hell.” She added that injuries caused to her partner had been ‘severe and cruel’.
Watching his condition worsen in hospital had been “absolutely horrific”, she added. Twigg confessed he had taken cocaine and drank vodka and sambuca. He told his trial he had become angry after Mr Woodward allegedly swore at and threatened him and his friends while they were driving past him on their way to a night out.
The killer told jurors he never intended to cause Mr Woodward serious harm and had only wanted to give him a black eye so that he would leave him and his friends alone. He said he punched his victim twice more because he feared Mr Woodward was going to hit him back.
Twigg insisted he was “devastated” that his actions had led to his death. The court heard how Twigg had three previous convictions for battery between 2014 and 2019 and was jailed for 30 months in 2020 for making threats to kill and burglary.
Ahmed Hossain KC, defending, said: “Twigg readily understands that he is going to receive a life sentence and offers remorse. He now understands not just the dreadful and tragic outcome of his violence but he also understands some of the triggers of that violence.”
Sentencing, Judge Roger Thomas KC said: “Although you may regret the consequences of your unlawful violence in so far as the consequences are concerned for you, it is difficult to accept that you are truly remorseful in any wider sense.”
Twigg was criticised by the judge for ‘stringing out’ the case by pleading not guilty to murder, which extending and amplified the anguish of his victim’s partner and stepdaughters. Judge Thomas said Twigg would have admitted murder had he been truly remorseful for the ‘sustained and heavy’ assault carried out in three stages.