A son who murdered his elderly father just days before his 80th birthday has been jailed for life. David Lavender attacked his 79-year-old dad Anthony Lavender at their Old Swan home on December 29, 2021.
Police were called to Lavender's house located in Woodhall Street shortly before midnight and found the pensioner down with a serious head injury. Paramedics from North West Ambulance Service tried their hardest to save Lavender's life and performed CPR on him, but he, unfortunately, died at the scene.
His 37-year-old son David was later arrested by police and charged with murder. David, a digital marketing specialist, accepted responsibility for causing his dad's head injuries during a court hearing at the start of February. The Liverpool Echo reported that Lavender was yet to enter a formal plea to the murder charge.
Lavender enters guilty plea to murder charge
The Liverpool Crown Court was notified at the time that psychiatrists would have to evaluate whether Lavender was fit to enter a plea and whether the 37-year-old might potentially have a partial defense of diminished responsibility. However, Lavender ended that notion, pleading guilty to the murder charge at a court hearing this afternoon.
According to a report by the Daily Record, Lavender was emotionless when he entered his guilty plea with several of his family members watching on from the public gallery. Lavender, who spoke only to enter his plea, then sat in silence in the dock for the remainder of the court hearing.
Michael O'Brien, defending Lavender, revealed that discussions had taken place in the morning until lunchtime with his client about the plea. Lavender then gave instructions that he wished to plead guilty to the murder charge. O'Brien and Gordon Cole, QC, prosecuting, both said that they would provide submissions on sentencing guidelines ahead of Lavender's sentencing.
Lavender's sentencing scheduled to take place on May 11
Because of Lavender's guilty plea, Judge Neil Flewitt, QC, announced that a provisional murder trial listed for June 27 this year would be vacated. Flewitt said that Lavender would receive his sentencing on May 11, with the judge remanding him in custody until that date.
During the hearing, the judge spoke to the killer, saying, "As you know, there is only one sentence that will follow, that is a sentence of life imprisonment. I will have to set a minimum term and that term will depend on what I hear in the sentencing hearing."
Anthony Lavender's family previously paid tribute to him on Wednesday, January 5, on what would have been his 80th birthday. According to a BBC report, the family said in a statement that their beloved brother and uncle Tony should have celebrated his 80th birthday today, but tragically, it was not to be. The family added that he was a kind and generous man who lived his life to the full, and Tony Lavender will be missed by all those who knew him.
