Child sex abuse victim GUILTY of manslaughter after killing his paedophile uncle who abused him decades ago

A jury found Kevin Caddick not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter on the direction of a judge

A child sex abuse victim who killed his paedophile uncle has been cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter.

Kevin Caddick, 36, was accused of murdering John Mathers, who was previously jailed for abusing his nephew when he was just five or six-years-old.

Mr Mathers died weeks after the assault left him with an “unsurvivable” brain bleed and fractures to his jaw and ribs.

Caddick denied murder but admitted manslaughter over the November 12 attack at Mr Mathers’ mother’s home, Gazette Live reports.

Prosecutor Mark Giuliani told jurors at Teesside Crown Court on Thursday that the Crown could no longer ask them to convict Caddick of murder.

On the direction of Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC, the jury found him not guilty of murder and guilty of manslaughter amid concerns over discrepancies in statements from Mr Mathers’ mother, who was the lone witness.

The jury had previously been told how Mr Mathers was jailed in 2012 for sexually abusing Caddick in 1986 to 1987.

Caddick said he lost control on the day of the attack because of the effects of the abuse and the way Mr Mathers’ responded when he questioned him about it at the home in Netherfields, Middlesbrough.

Caddick denied going there to attack Mr Mathers, but said he was in the area and coincidentally saw him staring from a window.

He said he asked “why did you do that to me when I was a kid?” and “saw red” when Mr Mathers replied he had gone to prison for it, thinking it sounded like a justification.

As he explained why the murder trial was abandoned the prosecutor said jurors were to hear expert evidence from two psychiatrists.

Dr Christopher Green, to be called by the defence, believed Caddick’s responsibility was diminished and he lost control at the time he assaulted Mr Mathers, formerly Harry Oldfield.

The prosecution’s psychiatrist Professor Don Grubin believed it may have been diminished responsibility but it depended on the facts.

Mr Mathers’ mother Jeanetta Oldfield previously did not accept she or he had said anything at the time of the attack.

But under cross-examination on Wednesday, she accepted she and her son might have said something in response to what Caddick said.

Mr Giuliani said: “That, of course, was the trigger that both psychiatrists accepted would mean that the defendant, given his history and what had happened to him as a young child by John Mathers, would have caused his responsibility to be diminished, or for him to lose control.

“Professor Grubin was asked to reconsider his opinion in light of the evidence that Jeanetta Oldfield gave.

“Professor Grubin is now of the opinion that, at the time that the defendant assaulted Mr Mathers, his responsibility was dismissed.

“In those circumstances, it would have been difficult for the Crown to ask you, or indeed any reasonable jury, to convict of murder.”

Caddick now faces sentence tomorrow for the unlawful killing of Mr Mathers. He was remanded in custody.