Luke Jeffrey

Luke Jeffrey was stabbed in Alexandra Road, Chichester and later died in hospital on 11 March 2016.

A 19-year-old drug dealer was tried for his murder at Lewes Crown Court but acquitted on 17 August 2016 on the grounds of self-defence. He said that he had taken the knife with him because he thought that Luke Jeffrey might have a knife and said that he had used it when Luke Jeffrey had come at him and that he had stabbed him in self-defence.

It was said that Luke Jeffrey had been stabbed over a £20 drugs dispute after going to buy some drugs in an alleyway.

Luke Jeffrey was from Bognor Regis and had been studying at the time at college to be a fitness instructor and living in the Chichester Foyer.

At the trial it was said that Luke Jeffrey had arranged to buy drugs from the drug dealer in an alleyway close to where he had been living in Chichester Foyer.

He had asked two friends to accompany him, which they did.

At the same time the drug dealer was said to have sent an associate to meet Luke Jeffrey and his friends at the junction of Alexandra Road where Luke Jeffrey paid him £10. However, it was suggested at court that Luke Jeffrey should have paid £30, leaving a shortfall of £20. It was said then that the associate called the drug dealer about the shortfall and that the drug dealer then came along and joined them and that there was then an argument and that during the row the associate attacked Luke Jeffrey and got him in a headlock and that the drug dealer then pulled out a knife and stabbed Luke Jeffrey twice and that the drug dealer and his associate then ran off.

The police and paramedics arrived just after 9pm and found Luke Jeffrey with two stab wounds, one wound to his abdomen which was relatively minor and another to his upper chest on his right hand side that had pierced his lung and a main artery and which caused his death. He was taken to Southampton General Hospital but died soon after at 12.55am on 12 March 2016.

When one of the friends that had gone with Luke Jeffrey to the alleyway to get the drugs was questioned by the police, he said that they had been smoking cannabis earlier that day and that Luke Jeffrey had drunk half a bottle of Martini and had been acting like a 'bit of an idiot' and that as they had been going to get the drugs he had been speaking loudly and knocking over bins.

The friend said that after Luke Jeffrey gave the associate the £10 and the drug dealer arrived they started to argue over the amount that was owed. He said that the drug dealer was saying that Luke Jeffrey owed him £20 and that the drug dealer was saying that Luke Jeffrey owed him £20 and added that he thought that they were arguing for the sake of arguing.

The friend said that he then saw that the drug dealer had a knife. He said, 'I'm not sure if he walked down with the knife, or took it out, but when I saw it I froze, that's when I knew there was the potential for this to go wrong. I took a step back because I thought this is not worth getting stabbed over, it's £20'.

The friend said that Luke Jeffrey then tried to walk off but that the associate followed him and grabbed him around the neck and that they began fighting and that he then saw the drug dealer punch Luke Jeffrey a number of times. He noted that the drug dealer didn't get involved in the fight until about three quarters of the way through and added that at no time was there any threat to the drug dealer as Luke Jeffrey had just been defending himself.

The friend said that he saw the drug dealer punch Luke Jeffrey several times and then make a lunging movement towards him which left Luke Jeffrey's tank top 'blood red'.

He said that the drug dealer then ran off and that Luke Jeffrey initially pursued him and shouted, 'I'm going to kill you', but that he then collapsed in the street and became unconscious.

The friend said that he then called for an ambulance. Luke Jeffrey was initially taken to St Richard’s Hospital but was then transferred to Southampton.

However, the drug dealer, whilst admitting that he had taken a kitchen knife to the alleyway after being called by his associate, said that he had only taken it to threaten Luke Jeffrey who he thought might have a knife, and that he had only stabbed him when Luke Jeffrey came at him

He was acquitted of murder and manslaughter.

However, he was later tried for illegal possession of a knife in public and for wounding another man during a drug-related incident on 19 April 2015 at the Chichester Festival Theatre where a man was stabbed and required intensive lifesaving surgery and sentenced to six years in February 2017, but appealed on the grounds that he should have received credit for admitting to having the knife that he had killed Luke Jeffrey with and had his sentence reduced by five months to five years, seven months. In the case of the stabbing of the man at the Chichester Festival Theatre, the drug dealer had said that he had not known that his friend had had a knife. They had set up a fake drug deal so that they could attack a man although at the trial it was heard that minutes after the attack, the drug dealer had sent his friend a text message that read, 'enjoy the knife'.

When the judge passed sentence, he said, 'Despite being on bail for the offence concerning the man at the festival, and therefore knowing the devastating consequences of a knife being taken to the scene, you chose to take a knife with you that night, with the utterly devastating consequences that Luke Jeffrey was stabbed and died. The word tragedy is readily over-used nowadays, but the events of March 11, 2016, were a tragedy in the truest sense of the word. Luke Jeffrey, a young man just 18 years of age, lost his life as a result of a dispute over a debt of £20. An utterly senseless loss of life, caused by what I consider to be one of the scourges of the modern age, the tendency of young men like you to carry knives with them to make themselves look big. This was nothing more than a silly fight that should have ended with nothing worse than a black eye and bruised pride. Because you had a knife on you it ended with Luke Jeffrey’s death. I do not go behind the verdict of the jury, who decided in using that knife against an unarmed man that you were acting in self-defence, but the fact of the matter is, had you not been in possession of the knife that night, Luke Jeffrey would not be dead'.