New Year violence leaves five people dead
By Richard Alleyne and Nick Britten
Last Updated: 4:34pm GMT 01/01/2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=DML5ZEHELTRVJQFIQMFSFGGAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2008/01/01/nny301.xmlFive people were killed in a spate of violence across the country that marred the New Year celebrations.
Police examine the crime scene in Leicester
Bradley Whitfield, 16, was stabbed to death in a street brawl in Leicester and a teenager was knifed after he stepped off a nightbus in London.
Elsewhere a pensioner was burned alive in her home in Northamptonshire and a man collapsed and later died after a fight near the Park Lane Hotel in London.
The grim death toll - five times higher than last year - was completed when a man died from shotgun wounds after admitting himself along with two injured friends into a Manchester hospital.
Five separate murder inquiries have been launched in one of the worst starts to the New Year in recent history.
In the first incident police were called to a residential street in Leicester at 5.16am after reports of an assault.
They found Mr Whitfield dead in a pool of blood from stab wounds.
A 14-year-old boy, a 15-year-old girl and a 30-year-old woman were arrested as part of the inquiry into the murder.
One family friend of the victim, Shane Faulkner, said: “He was a lovely lad who would do anything for anyone and was never in any kind of trouble.
“He was just looking forward to the rest of his life.”
In London, an 18-year-old was stabbed in Edmonton, north London, as he made his way home from the New Year celebrations.
Police said he and his friends became embroiled in an argument after stepping off the bus at approximately 6.30am.
The teenager was chased and stabbed to death, they added.
Earlier in Manchester a separate murder investigation was launched after three men admitted themselves into hospital with shotgun wounds shortly after 6pm.
One man died at the hospital while another was treated for wounds to his back and a third for bullet grazes.
Later one of the survivors discharged himself while the other man was transferred to another hospital whose location was kept secret.
A pensioner was murdered when her terraced home was set on fire just hours into New Year’s Day in Kingsthorpe, Northamptonshire.
Firefighters carried the body of Mavis Clift, 73, from the burning terraced house and she was certified dead by a police surgeon.
Police forensic officers are scouring the woman’s house for signs of how the fatal fire started.
A man has been arrested in connection with the murder.
A bouquet of flowers outside her house read: “Mavis. Why? You will be missed,” while another from the pensioner’s darts team colleagues said: “Mavis will be sadly missed.”
An investigation was launched after a man collapsed and died after a fight outside the Park Lane Hotel in central London.
Officers discovered two men attacking another who was on the ground outside the hotel in Piccadilly in the early hours of the morning the Metropolitan police said.
The two men were arrested and a third was taken to hospital and was later discharged.
While the officers were investigating the incident another man was discovered around the corner in Park Lane.
He had collapsed and was pronounced dead on arrival at a central London hospital.
Meanwhile there was also a number of people seriously injured during the night’s celebrations.
A man was recovering in hospital after being shot in the stomach in the Anfield area of Liverpool at 5.30am this morning.
A man was fighting for his life after he was stabbed in the throat during a mass brawl.
A second man who went to his aide was slashed across the face during the violence in Manchester.
A 19-year-old was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after officers were called to an address in Amlwch on Anglesey, north Wales, at 1.40am.
The 53-year-old victim was taken to hospital in Bangor where his condition is described by police as critical.
An investigation was also launched after a man collapsed and died while being held in police custody on New Year’s Eve.
The man, aged in his 30’s, was found to have stopped breathing when officers went to their police van to take him into the police station.
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