Corby £20 killer's promise to help detectives comes to nothing

He was a desperate man - keen to serve as little time in prison as possible after admitting killing a rival over a drug debt.

But one year on from his court sentencing for manslaughter, Sean Doherty's promise that he would end his silence and co-operate with police over the death of Tom Gravestock has come to nothing.

The heartless 26-year-old from Corby was sentenced to just seven years and two months for the cold-blooded manslaughter of Tom, a drifter who had spent time on the streets of Corby.

On February 28, 2019, Northampton Crown Court heard the horrific details of the night during the previous summer that Doherty brutally kicked Tom to death over a £20 drug debt in a house in Butterwick Walk.

He had walked Tom - who was just nine stone - through the streets of the Kingswood estate, forcing him say: "I am not a good person, I am not a good person" before punching him repeatedly in the face. The next morning, a humiliated Tom was found dead in the upstairs of the house with 35 blunt force trauma injuries to his stomach, torso and his head.

Cowardly Doherty was found hiding nearby in a bungalow in Lincoln Way. He refused to co-operate with police, giving no comment in interview and later telling officers that he hadn't fought with Tom, and that another man must have been responsible for the manslaughter. Two other people in the house - Gemma Beck and Andrew Rae - did co-operate with the police and neither were charged with any offence.

Tom's devastated family wanted to know how their 'thoughtful and kind' son and father had died. But Doherty refused to co-operate until he suddenly decided to admit manslaughter ahead of a trial - but after hundreds of hours had been spent preparing for that trial and thousands had been spent in legal aid.

He knew a guilty plea would reduce any sentence he was to serve - and in a last-ditch attempt to persuade Her Honour Judge Adrienne Lucking to give him as short a sentence as possible, Doherty promised that he would now help detectives to discover what really happened on the night of August 21, 2018

So after his conviction, they visited Doherty in prison to ask him for his help.

But the Northants Telegraph has since learned that what Doherty told detectives was 'nothing of any consequence'. Officers are said to be frustrated by Doherty's response to their questions.

Doherty will only serve half of his original sentence which means he could be back on the streets of Corby by April 2022.