Killer to appeal sentence for town centre stabbing

One of two teenagers jailed for the murder of an 18-year-old in front of town centre shoppers has made a bid to appeal against his life sentence.

Raymond James Quigley, known as James, of Wymondham, Norfolk, was stabbed to death in a gang-related "retribution" attack in Ipswich on 17 January 2023.

Alfie Hammett and Joshua Howell, both from the Ipswich area, were sentenced to minimum terms of 24 and 20 years respectively in March last year.

Howell, now aged 20, is due to have his application heard at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday.

The defendants' trial heard "deep-rooted gang rivalry" led to Mr Quigley being set upon outside the former Debenhams building in Westgate Street.

He ran into a card shop and died from stab wounds to his torso, back and chest.

Hammett, of Larkhill Rise, Rushmere St Andrew, near Ipswich, and previously of Norwich, was said to have delivered the fatal blows while Howell, of Wellington Street, Ipswich, threatened Mr Quigley's friends with a machete.

The attack came a year after the murder of 18-year-old Joe Dix in Norwich by three members of a Norfolk-based gang, which Mr Quigley was said to be a member of.

At sentencing, Judge Martyn Levett said Hammett and Howell were both gang members who showed no true remorse.

"It is self evident that this was a planned attack," he added.

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