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| Scott Pritchard murder: Woman jailed for life for 2004 killing | Scott Pritchard murder: Woman jailed for life for 2004 killing |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A woman has been jailed for life for bludgeoning a man to death with a baseball bat more than 14 years ago. | |
| Scott Pritchard, 19, was found with serious head injuries outside his home in Lindsay Close, Sunderland in January 2004 and died in hospital. | Scott Pritchard, 19, was found with serious head injuries outside his home in Lindsay Close, Sunderland in January 2004 and died in hospital. |
| His murder remained unsolved until Karen Tunmore, 36, from Killingworth, handed herself in to police in July. | |
| Tunmore admitted murder and was jailed for life with a minimum of 17-and-a-half years at Newcastle Crown Court. | Tunmore admitted murder and was jailed for life with a minimum of 17-and-a-half years at Newcastle Crown Court. |
| Mr Pritchard died after suffering what police described as a vicious attack outside his home. | |
| In 2005 his father Robert Stacey was charged with murdering his own son and spent 16 weeks on remand before the case against him was dropped. | |
| In a statement read out in court, Mr Stacey said people had continued to shout abuse at him even after he was cleared, and he was scared to walk around Sunderland city centre "for fear of being accused of a crime I did not commit". | |
| Hundreds of officers were involved in the investigation, which remained unsolved until Tunmore walked into Middle Engine Lane police station and confessed. | |
| Tunmore told police she had travelled to Sunderland in order to collect a financial debt from Mr Pritchard, who was not known to her. | |
| After it became clear to her he could not pay she said she "saw red" and attacked the teenager, who was on crutches at the time, with a baseball bat before discarding the weapon. | |
| Det Ch Insp John Bent, of Northumbria Police, said after sentencing: "Karen Tunmore has had to live with her horrifying secret for 14 years and she has finally been overcome by her guilt. | |
| "She clearly could not live another day with the needless death of a teenager on her conscience. | |
| "Police have done everything possible to be satisfied that Karen Tunmore is the killer. | |
| "When interviewed by officers, she revealed a number of details about the murder that were not public knowledge and could only have been known by somebody present on the night of Scott's death. | |
| "A murder investigation is never closed until the conviction of those involved, and Scott's parents deserved to see justice at long last." |