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Darren Broadbent

Age: 35

Sex: male

Date: 1 Aug 2016

Place: Thorntree Court, Birchwood Crescent, Grangewood, Chesterfield

Darren Broadbent was found dead at a flat at Thorntree Court in Chesterfield on 1 August 2016

A 15-year-old and an 18-year-old were initially charged with his murder, but the charges against them were later dropped after the Crown Prosecution Service said that there was no realistic chance of a conviction as it could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt that they had not acted in self-defence or which one of them had stabbed Darren Broadbent.

A third person, a 44-year-old woman from Chesterfield was also charged with conspiracy to commit robbery and a fourth person, a 36-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.

It was said that Darren Broadbent had been stabbed whilst committing a robbery at the flat of a drug dealer in irder to pay a £50 drug debt.

Darren Broadbent was said to have been a drug dealer himself and to have owed a fellow drug dealer £50 and so the fellow drug dealer had organised a robbery on two other drug dealers who had come to Chesterfield from Sheffield to sell drugs.

It was said that the mastermind behind the robbery at Thorntree Court during which Darren Broadbent killed was the 44-year-old woman from Chesterfield. She was later convicted of conspiracy to commit robbery for her role and sentenced to six years. She admitted sending a text message to Darren Broadbent suggesting the robbery. Her text message read, 'Dazza - got a really good graft. Some brown and white in the flat tonight. Could you get a lad you could trust?'. She told him that the drug dealers would be at the flat and would have between £800 and £1000 worth of drugs or money with them.

It was said that as a result, Darren Broadbent armed himself with golf clubs, a mask, knuckle dusters and a crowbar and turned up at the flat at about 6.30am on Monday 1 August 2016 and broke down two doors leading into the living room at the flat, but that during the struggle he was stabbed.

After the police arrived, the two drug dealers were charged with murder, but the prosecution at the woman's trial said that that they dropped the charges because it could not be proved who had inflicted Darren Broadbent's fatal injury. The prosecution also noted that it would have been impossible to counter arguments of self-defence in the case.

At the woman's trial it was heard that Darren Broadbent had between 7 and 14 times the lethal dose of amphetamine in his system which was said to have been a possible factor in his determination to break down the doors and get into the flat.

When the judge passed sentence against the woman, he said, 'You set in chain this terrible sequence of events. You started it. You wanted to clear your debt with Mr Broadbent and were also hoping for a share of the money or drugs as well. In telling him to bring back-up, it is clear you anticipated violence and you knew there was a knife in the flat that was being used to cut the drugs. While you may have had a last-minute change of heart about the plan, leading you to leave the door locked, you certainly did nothing to stop it'.


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