Salford Burglary Was 'Unforgivable'

Two men who tried to burgle a house in Salford using a machete have been jailed.

4 men broke into the home of Peter Flanagan in June last year, when one of the gang - 27 year old John Bennell who was holding the weapon -  ended up dead after the homeowner fought back and stabbed him. 

59-year-old Peter Flanagan, was arrested on suspicion of murder and spent 3 days in custody before being told he had acted in self defence

The three burglars who ran from the scene as 27-year-old Bennell collapsed from his wounds outside the house were brought for sentencing at Crown Court.

The court heard that Mr Flanagan and Bennell grappled in the living room of the house in Ethel Avenue in Swinton, as the homeowner attempted to disarm the raider, and that during the struggle Bennell received the fatal wounds.

Judge Leslie Hull said: "He (Mr Flanagan) saw at close quarters his home being ransacked. In his terror he picked up a kitchen knife to defend himself. Part of the menace of this case is that it could have been Mr Flanagan - innocent, asleep, at home in his bed - rather than Bennell."

Former soldier 23-year-old Wesley Gibbons, from Stretford got 8 years in jail and father-of-two Martin Jamieson, 27, of Eccles, who didn't enter the house got 7

The judge who described what they did on the night of June 22 last year as "serious and entirely unforgivable".