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Bilston murderer sentenced to at least 22 years for stabbing after pool rules dispute

Grandfather Lyndon Smith was today sentenced to life behind bars for stabbing John Joyce to death in Bilston.

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Lyndon Smith was sentenced to life in prison and will serve at least 22 years

A pool player who ‘brutally’ stabbed his victim four times after a pub row about game rules was today sentenced to life in prison.

Lyndon Smith looked on emotionless as he was told he would spend at least 22 years in jail for violently lashing out at 20-year-old John Joyce in Bilston.

The grandfather drank 10 pints of lager before arming himself with a kitchen knife and fatally plunging it 22cm into his victim’s body.

Sentencing today, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker said he was ‘far from convinced’ Smith could not remember significant details about the killing as he had claimed in court.

John Joyce was aged 20 when he was stabbed

He added: “I’m sure that when you stabbed Mr Joyce in the chest you weren’t acting in self defence or in fear of violence. It was you who was the aggressor that night.”

The 46-year-old, of Owen Road, Bilston, denied murder and instead claimed he acted in self defence when a fight broke out on August 17 last year.

But jurors rejected his tale, unanimously convicting him after eight hours of deliberation last week.

Mother Rose Joyce said she had been left suffering with ‘unbearable pain’ following her son’s death.

In a statement read to the court, she said: “No mother should have to bury their child, but to have a child taken away from you in such a cold and brutal way is just unbearable.

“Everyday I have to get up and face another day without my baby boy. My heart is broken in pieces. He was everything to me and now he is gone.

“The worst thing is, he died alone and I wasn’t there to hold his hand.”

During the trial, jurors were told Mr Joyce was with friends and family at Bilston’s Market Tavern when Smith approached the group.

Smith challenged one of the party to a game of pool for a £20 wager but walked off when the pair disagreed over the rules.

He fled the pub, driving less than a mile away to his home to grab the six-inch blade, before returning to seek out the group.

The father-of-four then confronted the Irish travellers in Church Street, wielding the knife before fatally stabbing Mr Joyce.

Defence barrister Mr Christopher Millington QC said Smith’s life had been ‘blighted’ my mental health issues over the past 20 years.

The Wolverhampton Homes carpenter had taken medication and received counselling for his depression and anxiety, the court heard.

Mr Millington told Birmingham Crown Court: “He had foolishly began using alcohol as a means of coping with his depression, and it’s alcohol, on the jury’s verdict, that has led him to behave in a way that was utterly out of character.”