Career criminal who was cleared over cleaning axe used in murder dies - three days after being released from prison

Portsmouth serial offender Neal Stacey, 56, died having collapsed at an address in London on May 20 last year after being released from HMP Lewes three days earlier on May 17, sparking a probe from the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.

Mr Stacey shot to infamy when he was on trial at Winchester Crown Court for cleaning and concealing a 15in long axe in a bath used by Brandon Willis to murder 27-year-old homeless man Christopher Butler on December 31, 2015, in Waverley Road where Mr Stacey lived. 

Mr Stacey was cleared of perverting the course of justice in June 2016 after a five-day trial after claiming a friend had washed the weapon. Willis was jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years after striking his “best friend” 25 times with an axe during the brutal murder. Mr Stacey was a regular in the courts in Portsmouth and was in jail after he was convicted of breaching a restraining order and sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment on March 1 last year. He was moved to HMP Lewes as he was also on recall for a previous offence, and remained in prison after the release date for this offence. 

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman’s report said on May 20, Mr Stacey was at an address in Walthamstow, London, when he collapsed. The emergency services attended and started resuscitation attempts. He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. 

Questions were raised over whether he received adequate support upon his release but the report said: “Neal Stacey died from combined drug and alcohol toxicity on May 20, 2023 following his release from HMP Lewes on May 17. He was 56 years old. I offer my  condolences to those who knew him. We found that Mr Stacey received satisfactory support with his substance misuse issues at Lewes. Substance misuse support was also put in place for when he was  released from prison. Mr Stacey was released homeless. However, we found that Mr Stacey’s community  offender manager had made the appropriate accommodation referrals to local authorities and homelessness support services. Also, part of the reason that Mr Stacey was released homeless was because he did not wish to return to his home area of Portsmouth and instead chose to go to Southampton, an area which had no duty to house him. We make no recommendations.”

Mr Stacey had told jurors during his trial how he had a long addiction to heroin sparked when his daughter died in 1997. But he said he had been off the drug until his partner died from heroin after he came to Portsmouth in 2014. Mr Stacey also told the trial how Willis was “going a bit weird” due to his reaction but Stacey still did not believe he had killed anyone at the time. Mr Stacey said his memory was bad, adding: “I was smashed to pieces. It had been a long week, a lot of drink and drugs.”