A St Helens man has been convicted of killing a young woman neighbour.A St Helens man has been convicted of killing a young woman neighbour.
A St Helens man has been convicted of killing a young woman neighbour.
A jury at Liverpool Crown Court took just over 20 hours to clear Paul Lyon of murdering 22-year-old Heather Dyer, who was stabbed to death, and instead found him guilty of her manslaughter.
They also cleared him of attempting to murder 25-year-old William Taylor, who was in a group of young people with Miss Dyer, who was also stabbed and suffered life-threatening injuries.
The jury of four men and seven women, who convicted him of manslaughter by ten to one, found Lyon guilty of wounding Mr Taylor.
The court heard that Lyon stabbed Miss Dyer three times with a fish filleting knife allegedly because he was angered by her repeated noisy anti-social behaviour.
The fatal attack occurred about 40 minutes after Lyon told another neighbour he was going to kill Miss Dyer if she did not stop playing music which was keeping him awake.
She had been due to be evicted from her flat above his home in Chapel Street, St Helens, three days later following repeated complaints by 45-year-old Lyon about her noisy conduct.
"Sadly the defendant did not wait until that date to arrive instead he took matters into his own hands," said Andrew Menary, QC, prosecuting.
"In the early hours of Saturday, September 23 last year as Heather Dyer and some of her friends were leaving her home the defendant attacked her outside her front door. He deliberately stabbed her three times to the chest and abdomen and when friends tried to intervene one of them, William Taylor was also stabbed several times," he claimed.
"Despite emergency treatment Heather Dyer died and but for such treatment William Taylor's would surely have proved fatal," he said.
Lyon was further remanded in custody to await sentence on October 15. He was taken back to Ashworth Special Hospital in Maghull where he has been on remand since January after suffering a breakdown.
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