Man who stabbed brother to death in row over dog to be sentenced for murder

William Campbell knifed sibling Samuel as their mother tried to intervene

William Campbell denied the charge (Northumbria Police)

A man convicted of murdering his own brother following a drunken row at their family home is to be sentenced for the killing next week.

William Campbell, 26, stabbed his younger sibling Samuel to death after a disagreement over the family dog.

He plunged the kitchen knife into the 24-year-old as their own mother tried to separate them from fighting in her garden in Sunderland.

Campbell was convicted of murder following a week-long trial at Newcastle Crown Court and is due to be sentenced on Wednesday.

He had denied the charge, saying Samuel had impaled himself on the blade. But jurors rejected the claim and found the older brother guilty last week.

The court heard the pair were having a drink together in the garden at around midnight after the older brother had returned from a night out. It descended into an argument about how Samuel sometimes treated the family dog, Marley.

As their mother tried to intervene, Campbell grabbed a knife from the kitchen, went back into the garden and attacked Samuel. Despite paramedics rushing to the house in the city’s Silksworth area, he died.

When Campbell was later told in a police interview that he was being charged with murder, he said: “Murder? Is he dead? Kill me now – just shoot me now.”

Speaking after the guilty verdict, Detective Chief Inspector Jane Fairlamb of Northumbria Police said: “This is a terribly sad case that has seen a family torn apart in the most devastating of circumstances.

“William made the decision to pick up a knife after an argument with his brother, and by doing so, he has ruined more than one life forever.”

Campbell, who had been living between the family home and Stokesley in North Yorkshire, has been remanded in custody until his sentencing.