A vengeful killer was jailed for six years today (

A vengeful killer was jailed for six years today (Fri) for stamping a man to death who had stabbed him during a previous brawl.

Paul Cudworth, 34, left an imprint of his training shoe on victim Darren Spencer’s face as he repeatedly jumped up and down on his head.

Cudworth’s lover Simone Meech, 18, was accused of dumping the killer’s bloodstained clothing in gardens behind the house they shared in southeast London.

But she wept as a jury found her not guilty of assisting her partner after the brutal killing.

She denied helping her lover and claimed she never saw him take off his bloodstained clothes.

Cudworth looked relieved as he was cleared of murder today (Fri) by the jury following a three week trial.

But he was convicted of manslaughter for what Judge David Stokes QC described as a ‘dreadful attack.

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Cudworth had told the court he was haunted by nightmares of the blade attack by Mr Spencer and his brother five years earlier.

Giving evidence he said: ‘I just wanted to get away.

‘I did not want to be there.

I was really scared.

I was panicking.

There were so many thoughts.

I was visibly shaking.

‘

He claimed he acted in self-defence thinking that Mr Spencer was going to pull a knife on him.

Charges were never brought against the Spencers after Cudworth did not respond to police enquiries.

The matter ‘simmered’ until the summer of last year when Cudworth spotted Mr Spencer’s unattended car in the street.

Cudworth got a kitchen knife and returned to slash the tyres.

On the night of December 28 last year Cudworth and Meech were out in Autumn Close, Wimbledon when they bumped into Spencer.

After punches were thrown, the victim fell to the ground and Cudworth continued battering him with his fists, the court heard.

Then he kicked and stamped on his face while he was on the ground.

Mr Spencer died as a result of severe head injuries, and also had inhaled blood and vomit into his lungs.

Cudworth and Meech later returned to the home they shared in Forest Hill, southeast London.

The court was told that Cudworth had boasted to a neighbour about the attack.

Meech, of Prentice Court, Goldings, Northampton, broke down as she was acquitted by the jury of assisting an offender.

Cudworth, of Davids Rd, Forest Hill, bowed his head as Judge Stokes jailed him for six years and said: ‘I have no doubt there was considerable animosity between you and Darren Spencer, the deceased.

‘It is alleged that that began when him and his brothers attacked on you.

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But the judge added: ‘This was a dreadful attack.

You attacked him using considerable violence.

‘You then sustained that attack while he was on the ground using your feet.

‘What is worse is that you left him there bleeding and choking and using your bullying nature, such as it is, prevented anyone from going near him.

‘

Relatives of the victim stormed out of court in anger as Cudworth was jailed.

An argument developed between them and Meech as she was led away by friends.

ends

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