Lee Tipping: son stabbed parents hundreds of times in frenzied attack then booked getaway flight to Rome

A man who killed his parents by stabbing them hundreds of times in a frenzied attack before mutilating his dad’s body has been found guilty of their murder.

Lee Tipping, 36, stabbed his dad Anthony Tipping and mum Patricia Livesey to death just a few hours after he broke down a bedroom door, sparking a row.

After Tipping killed his parents he booked a flight to Rome and drove to Manchester Airport.

Both parents had been beaten as well as stabbed

Preston Crown Court heard Anthony, 60, had been stabbed 165 times, including at least 65 times in the chest and 15 times in the abdomen.

The court heard Patricia, 57, had been stabbed 153 times, including 67 times in the chest, 39 in the abdomen, 10 in the neck and three times around the eyes.

Both parents had also been beaten before they died, with Patricia suffering a black eye and a shoulder injury consistent with being hit with a blunt weapon, the murder trial had heard.

Tipping, who admitted manslaughter, claimed he acted in self-defence because his father had attacked him with the knife first before he managed to disarm him.

His lawyer told jurors he’d stopped taking his schizophrenia medication at the time of the attack, which happened at their home in Higher Walton, Lancashire on 20 November last year.

But a jury found him guilty of two counts of murder after a trial at Preston Crown Court.

‘Tipping only had one intention...that was to kill them both’

David McLachlan QC, prosecuting, had previously told jurors: “The law of self defence is just common sense.

“If someone is under attack or believes they are about to be attacked, they are entitled to defend themselves so long as they use no more than reasonable force.

“The prosecution says he wasn’t even under attack. Even taking the case that he was, do you accept for one minute that 165 times is ‘no more than reasonable force’?

“Due to the ferocious nature of the attack, Tipping only had one intention and that was to kill them both. He showed them no mercy whatsoever, nonwithstanding all they had done for him.”

The court heard Patricia, had texted her sister saying ‘please God, I hope someone will help us’ on the night of the attack.

On November 19, the couple went to a pub with Patricia’s sister Catherine Riding and her husband Martin.

The court heard Anthony received a phone call from his son, who told him he had ‘kicked the bedroom door down’.

Anthony is said to have responded: “You’d better f***ing not have.”

Mr Riding said that Patricia seemed ‘anxious’ about the situation, while Mrs Riding told the court her sister seemed ‘scared to go home’.

She said: “She said ‘this could be my last gin’.

“She didn’t want to go home. She’d never really said that before. I said why, and she said she just didn’t want to go home. So I knew there was something.”

‘Please God I hope someone will help us’

She approached Anthony about her sister’s behaviour, who told her of their plans to have their adult son leave the family home.

But shortly after arriving home, at around 11.30pm, Patricia texted Mrs Riding: “OK, I’ll probably not sleep, he’s being a f***ing shit.”

Ten minutes later, she texted: “Please God, I hope someone will help us.”

Mrs Riding responded, telling Patricia to call either her or the police, but her message was not read.

The following day, when Patricia failed to arrive at her mum’s house for dinner, Mrs Riding and her other sister, Pauline Haworth, visited the house to see if she was ok.

They found the door locked and milk still on the doorstep and made numerous unanswered phone calls to Patricia and Anthony.

They called 999 at 1.43pm on November 20 and the couple’s bodies were found in the upstairs of the house later that day, after police broke down a side door.

Tipping claimed he had acted in self-defence

After killing his parents, Tipping booked a flight to Rome and drove to Manchester Airport, where he checked into a nearby hotel under a fake name, the court heard.

When he was arrested at around 7.30pm on November 21, he claimed he had acted in self-defence.

He told police his father had been ‘bullying him all his life’ and was ‘a monster’ who would ‘fight to the death’.

Tipping began shouting as he was taken into custody, where he will remain until his his sentencing at the court on July 28.

Judge Julian Goose, addressing the jury, said: “All trials are important, but some are more important and this is one of those. I agree with your verdicts. You’re the ones who make the decision, and all decisions have reactions. Please put those out of your minds, because you performed your job well.”

Tipping showed ‘no remorse’ for his actions

Speaking after the verdict was delivered, detective chief inspector Jill Johnston from Lancashire Police said: “This is an utterly tragic case that saw the very two people who loved and cared for Lee Tipping more than anyone else in the world, having had their lives taken away by him.

“Tricia and Anthony devoted their lives to their son and they did everything for him.

“Despite this Lee subjected them both to the most horrific, sustained and violent attack last year, that resulted in their deaths.

“Lee has shown no remorse for his actions and we know that he made extensive efforts to flee the country prior to his arrest in Manchester on the day after the murders.

“He has maintained self-defence and loss of control as the reason behind the killings, failing to accept any personal responsibility for the consequences of his ferocious attacks.

“Lee has subjected the families of both Tricia and Anthony to a four-week trial, prolonging the upset and heart felt grief that has rippled through the close community in which they had lived for all of their lives.”