Connor Reece guilty of murdering Lancaster man Lee Farrington

A man accused of murdering a neighbour who had tried to act as a peacemaker between two feuding men has been found guilty.
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Lee Farrington, 29, was stabbed in the thigh and suffered a cardiac arrest a short time after the attack, on August 27.

He died the next morning during emergency surgery to try to repair his severed femoral artery.

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A post mortem examination deemed it was caused by a “deliberate thrusting motion”.

Lee FarringtonLee Farrington
Lee Farrington

Connor Reece, 24, of no fixed address, denied murder but admitted he caused the fatal wound believing another man had been stabbed.

Jurors at Preston Crown Court unanimously rejected his account and found him guilty.

Reece’s girlfriend Danielle McCreery, 27, of no fixed address, and her father, Wayne McCreery, 46, from St Andrews Road, Stretford, Manchester, were found guilty of perverting the course of justice after assisting Reece to evade arrest.

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Preston Crown Court previously heard there had been a previous violent confrontation between Reece and a neighbour, Ciaran Currie, 11 days earlier, which had led to Reece, his girlfriend and Currie’s evictions from a multi occupancy property, Oak Tree House.

Mr Farrington and his friend Kadijah Omar also lived at the property and knew them.

It was alleged Reece was angry Mr Farrington "was on Currie’s side" and he had tried to act as a “peacemaker” during the earlier incident.

On August 27, Mr Farrington, Miss Omar, and another man, Andrew Perry, went to an address on Tarnsyke Road to buy some cannabis, and almost as soon as they arrived Connor Reece, who had two young men with him, walked over to them and asked where Ciaran was.

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Mr Farrington, who replied he didn’t know, was “cornered” in the communal area.

Reece took a knife from his sock and suddenly stabbed him in the thigh.

Judge Robert Altham ruled the trio will be sentenced on a date to be set.