Killer who battered friend jailed

Drug addict Adam Buckley, from Smethwick, will spend at least 19 years in jail after he was convicted of the murder of Oliver Mee and the attempted murder of Frances Walker and John Atkins. A jury took just two hours yesterday to find him guilty on all three counts following a two-week trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Mr Mee's family broke down in tears as the verdict was announced. Afterwards they said they were relieved justice had finally been done.

Gail Mee, Oliver's mother, said: "We have waited nearly two years for this. It is the maximum he could have got so I couldn't have hoped for any more.

"Sitting through it and hearing all the details of how brutal the murder was has been awful."

Buckley, aged 23, of Ethel Street, Smethwick, had denied the charges, claiming diminished responsibility.

The court heard that on the night of June 20, 2007, he received a call telling him to return home to repackage a delivery of cocaine into smaller amounts.

He had taken some of the drug himself and was feeling edgy and paranoid. He told police an argument had broken out with Oliver Mee when he arrived to collect the packages, but police said yesterday that Mr Mee was not connected with drugs.

Buckley grabbed a claw hammer which he kept beside his bed and hit Mr Mee, of Abbey Road, Smethwick, around the head more than 20 times.

He then set about his mother's partner, John Atkins, lunging at him with the bloodied hammer.

Buckley then attacked Frances Walker, who lived alone next door, with two knives, inflicting life-threatening injuries.

Sentencing Buckley, Judge John Wait said: "I have read the statement made by Gail Mee saying what the effect the death of her son has had upon her and her family.

"I have read the statement of Frances Walker about the effects on her life.

"They are not just physical, they are mental and long term.

"There is only one sentence I can pass and that is life in prison."