by Anna White and Keith Hunt

awhite@thekmgroup.co.uk

Killer Caleb White has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for stabbing Tom Crittenden to death.

The 20-year-old, of Cornwall Close, in Shepway, Maidstone, was last week cleared of murder but was convicted of manslaughter by a jury.

The young father-of-one killed his 21-year-old victim in the early hours of September 25 last year with a single stab.

Crittenden had arrived at White's flat in Dublin House with his friend Billy Swift after they had been out drinking in the town centre.

Mr Swift asked his father to take them because his ex-girlfriend Julie Matthews was there with another man, Shane Price.

When they arrived, White, who had been at home for the evening looking after his baby, ran back into his flat chased by Mr Crittenden.

White, then 19, returned with a kitchen knife and stabbed Mr Crittenden in the chest.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how White reacted when he saw his girlfriend Danielle Brown on the ground and Crittenden standing nearby.

Mr Swift and an injured Mr Crittenden returned to the van. Mr Swift's father drove them back to his home off the Sutton Road, almost opposite Kent Police headquarters, where Mr Crittenden collapsed and died.

Judge Jeremy Carey had adjourned White's sentencing for six weeks for a psychiatric report but then decided it was not needed.

Upon sentencing, he said: "You will have to live with this for the rest of your life and for your deliberate act which led to his death."

Judge Carey said White will serve up to half of his sentence.

Det Ch Insp Andrea Bishop, from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: "The defendant had wound himself up - with feelings of jealousy and anger - so that he totally lost control and stabbed Tom Crittenden, tragically killing him.

"As a result, the life of a young man, who had everything to live for, has been needlessly cut short.

"There can be no excuse for using a knife to kill or injure and the length of the sentence imposed today reflects how seriously knife crime is taken."