Sentencing delay for Garforth bus-stop killer
New sentence date confirmed in five months’ time
A young man who admitted attacking and killing a pensioner at a bus stop will have to wait another five months to learn his fate.
Thomas Childe previously admitted the manslaughter of 79-year-old Colin Starbuck in Garforth in October last year.
He was due to be sentenced at Leeds Crown Court, but instead a new date has been set for October 22 and 23.
No reasons were disclosed in court for the lengthy delay, but Judge Simon Phillips KC described it as “regrettable” that sentencing could not take place.
Childe, 23, who appeared in court over a video link from HMP Leeds, was remanded back into custody.
Police were called by the ambulance service at 6.35pm on October 29 to reports that a man had been found seriously injured at the bus stop on Aberford Road in Garforth, next to the town’s larger Tesco store.
Members of the public had tried to help before ambulance crews arrived.
Mr Starbuck was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
An 18-year-old man was initially arrested on suspicion of murder.
Childe, of Oak Crescent, Garforth, was later arrested and also charged with murder.
His guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter was accepted by the Crown and a provisional trial date was vacated.