Five men have been convicted of killing a man in North Lincolnshire
They have been found guilty of Mr Staves’ manslaughter following a trial and sentenced to a combined total of 76 years in jail
Last updated 6th Dec 2024
Five men have been sentenced to a combined total of 76 years in jail after being convicted of killing Ian Staves at his home in North Lincolnshire.
Jamie Smith, 35, of Skippindale Road, Scunthorpe, Patrick Joseph Smith, 29, of no fixed abode, and three men from Hull; Nicholas James St Clair, 36, of Castle Grove, Aaron Windas, 41, of Anlaby Road and Celestino Furtado, 38, of Waterloo Street, were all found guilty of Mr Staves’ manslaughter with the jury returning their final verdicts earlier this week.
It follows a trial at Bradford Crown Court.
All five men alongside Bobby Gibson, 20, of Woodcock Street were also found guilty of conspiracy to burgle Mr Staves property as a part of the planned attack which led to Mr Staves’ death two years ago.
Police received a call from Mr Staves’ friend on visiting his address on Cherry Lane in Wootton, advising he had found him on the living room floor unresponsive.
Emergency services attended and Mr Staves was pronounced deceased at the scene. A postmortem examination was carried out and identified that Ian had been assaulted and strangled.
Detective Superintendent Alan Curtis talks about the investigation:
“We received information there was a commotion at Mr Stave’s address the previous evening, on Sunday 11 September and a red car was seen leaving the area.
“We conducted extensive enquiries to be able to identify the make and model of the car, and were able to place it travelling southbound across the Humber Bridge, from the direction of Hull, before attending at Mr Staves’ address.
“Further CCTV and ANPR work was carried out in a bid to trace the cars movements and identify the driver, and we established the car was a Vauxhall Corsa that was on false registration plates that had been stolen from an address in Hull two days before the attack on Friday, 9 September.
“Expanding our CCTV searches and enquiries then led us to the identification of a second car, a BMW 5 series, which was seen travelling in convoy with the Corsa, from Hull to Wootton, on the evening of Sunday, 11 September, and was insured to Nicholas St Clair.”
Additional work was undertaken to identify all those involved.
On Wednesday, 8 February, 2023, all six men were arrested and charged two days later with murder and conspiracy to burgle.
Throughout the course of the four-week trial, all six men declined to provide an account around the circumstances that led to Mr Staves’ death.
Five men; Jamie Smith and Patrick Smith, Nicholas St Clair, Aaron Windas, and Celestino Furtado were found guilty in connection with Ian’s death.
Celestino Furtardo was handed a 20-year prison sentence, 15-years for manslaughter alongside a consecutive sentence of five-years in prison for firearms offences. He was also handed a six-year sentence for conspiracy to burgle which he will serve concurrently.
Aaron Windas and Nicholas St Clair were each handed a 15-year prison sentence for manslaughter alongside a six-year sentence for conspiracy to burgle which they will both serve concurrently.
Patrick Smith was handed a 15-year prison sentence for manslaughter and Jamie Smith was handed a eight-year prison sentence for manslaughter. Both men were each handed a four-year sentence for conspiracy to burgle which they will serve concurrently.
Bobby Gibsons was acquitted of murder and manslaughter however found guilty of conspiracy to burgle and sentenced to three years in prison.
Detective Superintendent Alan Curtis continued: “This has been a lengthy and intricate investigation into an orchestrated attack that resulted in Mr Staves losing his life.
“After killing him, the group travelled back across the Humber Bridge to Hull in the BMW, leaving the stolen Corsa close to Barton upon Humber.
“We were able to identify that Gibson and Windass then travelled back in Windas’ Ford Kuga, with Gibson picking the Corsa up and the pair travelling in convoy back across the bridge, with the Corsa later being located at a premise in West Yorkshire.
“These men went to extreme lengths in an attempt to mask their involvement and cover up their unforgivable and callous attack on Mr Staves.
“Whilst the result at court today will not bring Ian Staves back, I hope it provides his loved ones with some comfort that all six men will be held accountable for their part in causing the death of Mr Staves and can no longer cause harm within our local community."