'Extremely emotional' dad of murdering son 'didn’t have any intention' other than handing him in to police

Peter West, 43, of Fisgard Road in Gosport told jurors at Portsmouth Crown Court that he ‘was extremely emotional’ when he went past the murder scene where Levi Kent was killed following the frenzied cocaine robbery.

Tommy West, 18, has admitted murder, robbery and possession of a blade following the frenzied cocaine robbery on Levi while half-brother Aiden West, 24, of Tudor Close, Gosport, denies murder and possession of a blade but has admitted robbery. 

Levi was repeatedly stabbed by Tommy West after being lured to shops behind Nobes Avenue after 2am on November 24 having refused to defer payment on a drug deal. The victim was knifed in his Vauxhall Corsa before attempting to escape and crashing his car into a wall and garages. Levi was then chased into Keyes Road before he was set upon again.

Peter, giving evidence, told the court that he managed to track down his son who was at the home of Liam Savage 37, of Trinity Green. Following a phone call with Tommy on Savage’s phone, Peter arranged that Tommy would go with him.

Peter said: “I know Tommy didn’t say it to me. I did what I thought I felt I had to do and I didn’t have any intention to do anything else.

“My son would not be able to stand there and tell me these things - I wasn’t getting the information that I wanted and what I needed. Eventually I got enough to know where he was and an agreement that he was going to come with me.”

Peter told the jurors that despite his son not explicitly admitting over the phone that he murdered Levi, he ‘believed he did’ from the conversation and how he was behaving.

(Proceeding.)