Joey Dean

Joey Dean was stabbed in the heart.

A man was tried for his murder but acquitted.

It was heard that he had stabbed Joey Dean to death because it was said that he had grassed on him for a burglary.

The court heard that after Joey Dean was stabbed, he had been just able to walk home to Fishmoor Drive, Blackburn and say that the man on trial had stabbed him before he collapsed and bled to death there. He had been stabbed five times.

At the trial it was heard that only two men could have killed Joey Dean who was stabbed to death in what was described as a frenzied attack, and that was the person on trial or the main prosecution witness. When the judge summed up he said that everyone agreed that if the man on trial had not murdered Joey Dean, then the other man did.

Both of the men had been arrested on the charge of murder, but the other man was released after saying that it was the man that was tried that had done it.

However, the court heard that the police had only sent the clothes of the man tried off for analysis, and not the other man's clothes. It was also heard that the police had taken 100 items from the house of the man that was tried for analysis but had taken none of the other mans and had not searched his house, even though they had had a warrant.

At the trial, the key prosecution witness was himself accused of carrying out the murder and then inventing a web of lies to blame the other person. However, the defence witness denied being the murderer.

The main witness was a drug addict and the defence claimed that he had murdered Joey Dean when they fell out over a drugs deal.