Man gets 10 years for fatal stabbing of Heather Dyer (From St Helens Star)

Man who stabbed Heather Dyer to death sentenced to 10 years in jail

11:08am Monday 15th October 2012 in News

A MAN who was convicted of the manslaughter of a woman neighbour after being cleared of her murder has been sentenced to 10 years in jail.

A jury at Liverpool Crown Court had earlier taken more than 20 hours to find Paul Lyon not guilty of murdering 22-year-old Heather Dyer, who was stabbed to death.

Instead they found the 46-year-old guilty of her manslaughter.

Lyon was also sentenced to two years for wounding 25-year-old William Taylor, who was in a group of young people with Miss Dyer. Mr Taylor had also been stabbed and suffered life-threatening injuries.

The sentences will run concurrently

The jury of four men and seven women, who convicted him of manslaughter by ten to one, found Lyon guilty of wounding Mr Taylor.

The convicted killer, who suffers from severe epilepsy, was being held at Ashworth Special Hospital in Maghull where he has been on remand since January after suffering a breakdown.

The sentence followed a trial that heard that Lyon stabbed Miss Dyer three times with a fish filleting knife allegedly because he was angered by her repeated noisy anti-social behaviour.

Prosecutors alleged the knifing happened in the early hours of Saturday, July 23, 2011, about 40 minutes after Lyon told another neighbour he was going to kill Miss Dyer if she did not stop playing music which was keeping him awake.

She had been due to be evicted from her flat above his home in Chapel Street, St Helens, three days later following repeated complaints by Lyon about her noisy conduct.

Lyon had denied murder, insisting that he had acted in self defence and had forgotten he was armed when he lashed out.

DCI Richie Salter from Merseyside Police said: "This has been a difficult and protracted investigation and our thoughts remain with the family of Heather Dyer and with William Taylor, who was seriously injured during the incident.

"We acknowledge the decision of the court and, I hope Heather's family now have the opportunity to move forward and grieve for their daughter and sister, and that William is now able to fully recover and move on with his life."