Woman jailed for killing man in Blackpool
Jeremy Fitzsimmons died two years after he was attacked with weapons
A Blackpool woman who was convicted of killing a man after attacking him with weapons has been jailed for three years.
Tracey Simmonds and another man attacked Jeremy Fitzsimmons at a flat in Blackpool in 2017.
He appeared to make a full recovery, but one of the wounds he suffered caused a small undetected internal injury which led to a ruptured bowel in 2019.
Mr Fitzsimmons died at the age of 44.
Simmonds and her accomplice James Walton were jailed in 2018 for wounding but after Mr Fitzsimmons' death, she was charged with manslaughter.
It was Walton who actually inflicted the fatal wound, but Simmonds was prosecuted on the basis that they'd acted together and shared an intention to injure with weapons.
Walton, 51, died in 2020.
Simmonds, 48, of Edmonton Place, Blackpool was found guilty of manslaughter following a trial earlier this year.
Det Insp Simon Pritchard, of the Force Major Investigation Team, said:
"While it may be true that Tracey Simmonds did not personally strike the blow which was to cause the subsequently fatal wound, this was a case of two people acting together, in concert, both using weapons against the same victim at the same time, both sharing an intention to injure him with their weapons as part of a joint enterprise, both encouraging each other to do so and that accordingly, both are criminally responsible for all the injuries that were inflicted, which includes the wound that subsequently caused death.
"I would like to thank the jury for their careful consideration of all the facts in this complex case and the Crown Prosecution Service and prosecution team for their expert work in preparing and presenting the case at court.
"I hope that this conviction and sentence offer Mr Fitzsimmons’ family some sense that justice has been served and my thoughts remain with them at this time."