UPDATE: |’Mindless thugs’ beat man to death before helping themselves to his beer News

Daniel Vasey and Jason Trueman regularly ‘terrorised’ James Thorne into giving them his benefits payments, a court heard

Two ‘mindless thugs’ who wreaked a years-long campaign of violent terror on a ‘loving’ man kicked him to death in his own home – before helping themselves to beers from his fridge.

Daniel Vasey and Jason Trueman made regular visits to James Thorne’s Wythenshawe home over the course of ‘three or four years’, ‘terrorising’ the 52-year-old and his housemate into giving them money, a court heard. Vasey, 41, and Trueman, 39, had memorised when Mr Thorne’s benefits payments – which he received due to a long-term health condition – were issued, and Mr Thorne and his housemate Graham Miller were too intimidated to report the violence to the police, prosecutors said.

The violence reached a head on June 14 last year, when Mr Thorne refused to open the locked door for Vasey and Trueman, shouting through the letterbox at them to ‘f**k off’.

The duo returned a few hours later, using Mr Miller’s brother to ‘trick’ him into opening the door before entering the house and unleashing a sickening assault on both men. Later that day, Mr Thorne collapsed in Tesco and tragically never regained consciousness.

Vasey and Trueman both later pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

At a sentencing hearing at Manchester Crown Court on Thursday (April 10), prosecutors described how ‘for about three or four years’ Vasey and Trueman had gone to Mr Thorne’s Crowhurst Walk home on the date of receipt of his benefits and ‘intimidated’ him into giving money to them.

“They were terrorising residents in the area,” Mr Bill Baker KC, prosecuting, said. “There was a culture of intimidating people who gave information to the authorities so they didn’t do so.”

He added that on one occasion in 2023 Mr Thorne had attempted to stand up to the thugs, but ended up being taken to hospital after being subject to a horrific attack.

Mr Baker told the court that in 2024, Vasey and Trueman had taken to entering Mr Thorne and Mr Miller’s house ‘uninvited’ and drinking their beer, as well as sometimes demanding money for ‘sniff’.

On the day of Mr Thorne’s death, CCTV images captured the pair walking down Crowhurst Walk on their way to Tesco to buy alcohol at around 6:30am. In Tesco, Vasey purchased a bottle of rum, while Trueman attempted to steal a case of beer, but was caught and escorted out, the court heard.

On their way back down Crowhurst Walk, Trueman tried to open the door of Mr Thorne’s home, but was unable to because it was locked. Mr Baker said Mr Thorne shouted through the letterbox at the pair to ‘f*** off’ before Trueman retaliated, yelling ‘how about you f*** off, Thorney f***ing hell mate what’s your problem’.

The court heard Trueman then threatened to return later, shouting: ‘I’ll walk past later on’.

Mr Baker described how at 10:39am the pair returned to Crowhurst Walk ‘intent on assaulting’ Mr Thorne.

“By chance Graham Miller’s brother arrived just after them,” Mr Baker continued. “Jason Trueman used this to his advantage to trick him into letting them in.”

CCTV footage seen by the court showed Trueman threatening Mr Miller before knocking on the door and positioning himself so only Mr Miller could be seen through the door’s spyhole.

“Seeing only his brother, Graham Miller opened the door,” Mr Baker said. “Daniel Vasey and Jason Trueman then rushed in. As they did, one of them hit Graham Miller in the face causing his nose to bleed and he fell to the stairs.”

The pair then ran into the living room where they inflicted a ‘sustained, persistent, and extensive’ assault on Mr Thorne, lasting around seven minutes in total, Mr Baker told the court.

During the assault, Trueman followed Mr Miller upstairs before returning downstairs and ‘helping himself’ to beer in the fridge. The pair then left the house, with Vasey emerging shirtless.

Mr Thorne sustained injuries ‘all over his arms, legs, and body’ – including blows to his head. He collapsed later that day while shopping in Tesco, and never regained consciousness. He sadly died on July 1 in hospital following a bleed on the brain.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Thorne’s sister Julie Burns described him as a ‘loving person’ whose death ‘seems so senseless’.

“The pain we all feel for the loss of James is immense,” she told the court. “The death was senseless. We also feel guilt. Guilt that we couldn’t stop this. Guilt that James went through this on his own.

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“He was a victim and he didn’t deserve to die like this. There isn’t a day that goes by we don’t feel the loss of James. Not a day we don’t feel sad and angry. Not a day we don’t love him. Nothing will ever bring James back. We can only hope our hearts will heal.

“We can also hope the criminal justice system does its part and this does not happen to anyone else at the hands of these mindless thugs.”

Mitigating for Vasey, Mr Richard Vardon said the 41-year-old had been battling the ‘twin demons’ of drugs and alcohol, but had made progress since being in custody.

“He is someone who was using drugs and alcohol for a long time,” he said. “There have been improvements in terms of that that are visible to those that have represented him for a period.”

However, he said Vasey, of Farncombe Walk, ‘recognises the great wrong he has done’ and that there were ‘real victims’ in the case.

Mitigating for Trueman, of Maybury Street, Mr Adam Watkins said he had suffered a ‘traumatic childhood’ and had been diagnosed with a personality disorder. He submitted that while Trueman had pleaded guilty to the ‘joint enterprise’ offence of manslaughter – meaning both Trueman and Vasey are jointly responsible in law – the only evidence of ‘kicking’ heard by the court came from Mr Miller, who described seeing Vasey assaulting Mr Thorne.

Judge Goddard KC adjourned the hearing until Monday to consider the sentence.