Suffolk Police's Daniel Connick speak outside Ipswich Crown Court after the sentencing of Jay Cotterill following his conviction of manslaughter after a fatal stabbing in Sutton Heath.
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00:00And you've been speaking to some of the family members, including the mother, in the past few moments.
00:07What's their reaction?
00:10I wouldn't want to speak for them, but certainly the reaction is...
00:14I don't think any sentence is ever enough for a grieving family or friend that's lost a loved one.
00:21But hopefully in the course of time they'll come to see that the sentence is a good one
00:28and it's passed down by the judge as well.
00:32Please feel free to say.
00:34So although we know that this wasn't a premeditated incident from the defendant,
00:40he did immediately go to grab a knife.
00:43We saw that he had 29 convictions beforehand, one of which also included another knife.
00:48What are the police doing to try and help prevent knife crime, which seems to be a growing issue in Suffolk?
00:54Yeah, I think I've been a police officer now for 27 years,
01:00and sadly knife crime and the use of edge weapons has been an issue throughout my career.
01:08Most recently we've got up sector in Suffolk, which is around education.
01:13With our partners and businesses around Suffolk, we do a lot of work with education around the purchase of knives.
01:21And again, these sentences time and time again should be telling people that if you choose to pick up a knife
01:27and take that into a confrontation, the consequences are always devastating.
01:31There's never been a good result or an outcome when someone's chosen to take a knife into a violent or any confrontation.
01:39The results for the person with the knife and the person who ends up either seriously injured or dead,
01:45and then the resultant effect it has on the family members who are left behind to deal with the consequences.
01:51Hopefully people will start to wake up and realise that knife crime and use of knives is just not an answer to anything.
01:59Do you think that 14 years was enough?
02:03I think it's a really good sentence for the jury found him guilty of manslaughter.
02:09And I think the judge has given the most he can in the circumstances, given the, you know, like you talk about the factors involved.
02:19I think it's, yeah, personally, I think I'm happy with the sentence that's handed down today.
02:25And I know you said earlier that you couldn't speak on behalf of the family, I completely understand that.
02:30But we had a very brief chat with them out here and they said that they didn't feel like it was enough.
02:39You know, I can fully understand why a grieving family member or a friend would feel like that.
02:49They've been incredibly dignified and restrained throughout the court process.
02:55Despite at times some poor behaviour for him, the court ruled he was now going to spend a considerable amount of his life in prison.
03:04And I don't think any sentence would really repair or repay somehow the loss they're going to feel from Richard not being here for them and, you know, and his children and his family.
03:17So I can completely understand their sentiments and I wouldn't really want to speak on their behalf about how they'd feel about it.
03:24Thank you. I tell you what, thank you.