'Despicable' sisters jailed after one stabbed her boyfriend to death for calling her a lesbian



Two 'despicable' sisters were jailed for manslaughter after one of them stabbed her boyfriend and the other let him bleed to death.

Samantha Brown, 20, knifed Dean Darvill, 23, in the groin after he accused her of having a lesbian affair.

She fled the scene barefoot after stabbing the maintenance worker, leaving him bleeding to death on the floor.

And her sister Toni, 25, refused to call an ambulance to her home in Wroxham Road, Higher Blackley, Greater Manchester.

Jailed: Toni (left) and Samantha Brown were told they were 'callous and selfish'



He would more than likely have survived if medical attention had been sought, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Samantha was sentenced to five years in a Young Offenders Institute for the stabbing, while her sister was handed a four-year jail term.

The victim's family reacted with fury to the sentencing, shouting out 'absolutely disgusting' and 'murderers' in court.

Samantha, Cheetham Hill, had been in a 'volatile' relationship with Mr Darvill for six months when the incident happened on January 9.

The couple went to Toni's house with another friend to spend the evening drinking, the court heard.

Victim: Dean Darvill could have survived his injuries if he had had medical attention

Samantha went upstairs with the friend for several hours, and at 1am Mr Darvill discovered them in 'a compromising position', police sources said.

A furious row erupted during which he accused them of having an affair, and Samantha picked up a carving knife from the kitchen.

She plunged it into her boyfriend's upper thigh, severing several arteries, before running away.

As Mr Darvill stumbled and fell to the floor, he pleaded 'get me an ambulance'.

But mother-of-two Toni refused, and instead made an attempt to bandage him up.

The other woman tried to call 999 at 2.10am but Toni slapped her and the call was abandoned.

As the colour drained from Mr Darvill's face and his head flopped on to the floor, she eventually phoned his family, who begged her to ring an ambulance.

But she still refused, and would not reveal her address to his panic-stricken relatives.

She even tried to reassure them by saying she had also recently stabbed her boyfriend and he had only needed five stitches.

Toni finally made the call to the emergency services at 3.10am, and lied to the operator, saying he had arrived injured at her door.

But by then it was too late, and Mr Darvill was later pronounced dead at North Manchester General Hospital.

'The wound was a survivable wound, what was required was urgent medical attention, with which Dean might have lived,' Guy Gozem QC, prosecuting, said.

Party girls: Samantha (left) with sister Toni on her 18th birthday

Toni told police she did not want to ring 999 because she did not want to wake up her young children.

Her defence barrister, Alan Conrad QC, said her friends and family described her as 'a most gentle and caring person, not a spiteful bone in her body'.

But his honour Judge Clement Goldstone QC said: 'How anyone can be so callous and selfish is beyond me.

'No sentence that I can pass can or will lessen the grief of Dean Darvill's family.

'He was a young man who had battled through difficulties with his own health only to be cut down in the prime of his life.'

The sisters sobbed as they were sent down.

Speaking outside court, the victim's uncle Chris Mitchell, 44, said the sentence was 'an absolute joke' and 'a travesty".

He said: "No one deserves to die the way Dean did.

'We will never allow the evil act of these two despicable individuals to sully his memory.'

The pair admitted manslaughter at an earlier hearing, after the charge against Samantha was reduced from murder.

Senior Investigating Officer Andrew Tattersall, from Greater Manchester Police, said: 'Dean was a popular and well-loved man and it is a tragedy that his life was taken from him at such a young age.

'Samantha decided to settle a drunken argument by using violence against the person she was supposed to love.

'Toni's failure to get help for Dean as he lay dying on her doorstep is incomprehensible.'



