THE trio of Bournemouth robbers who killed a man in an alleyway have been described as a "little team of violent young men" by a police detective.

Damien Sean Johnson, aged 31 and of Christchurch Road, Hayden Johnson, aged 29 and also of Christchurch Road, and Dominic Macdonald, aged 30 and of St John’s Road, Bournemouth, were sentenced at Winchester Crown Court on Friday, July 15, after admitting the manslaughter of 56-year-old Michael Bastable, who was known as Shaun.

The three defendants also admitted charges of robbery relating to the incident involving Mr Bastable on January 14 and a second incident on January 19. Damien and Hayden Johnson both also entered guilty pleas to a third robbery on January 21.

Damien and Hayden Johnson were sentenced to 22 years in prison, with an extended licence period of a further three years, and Macdonald was given an 18-year jail term.

Speaking to the Daily Echo after the hearing, DS Dave Wise, of Dorset Police's major crime investigation team, said: “Like anything, a sentence will never truly reflect the pain that family of the victim are going to go through.

“On this occasion with that sentence, I think it is certainly at the higher end that I was expecting and as a police team we are pleased and I think the family reaction has been very positive to it.

“The case was really being portrayed by our counsel. This was a little team of violent young men who were intent on committing serious crimes and even really on reflection when they must have known that Mr Bastable was dead, they continued to commit these crimes, almost without regard and impose significant injuries upon those people."

Asked about how Mr Bastable's family were feeling and how they had supported police, the detective said: “I kind even start to imagine how they feel. I know having worked with them closer and through the family liaison officers that they have been very supportive of the process. They have assisted us at every stage of this and, as I say, this is not about us as an investigation team. This is about us getting justice for Shaun and for them and I think we achieved that or gone some way to achieving that for them with this result.”

At the end of the sentencing the judge praised the work of the investigating team and prosecutors for bringing the case to court within six months of the offences taking place.

DS Wise said the team are under pressure but with all major crime inivestigations it takes time.

"t is team effort and that involves the families and to get to the stage where we are where we have go have got a result today I am really pleased with," DS Wise said.

He added: “The robbery offences within their own right were horrific crimes that needed good investigations and even before we got involved from the major crime team side of things there was sound investigations that have identified these offenders and we would have pursued on their own righ ton those crimes.

"On this case it has been heightened because of the manslaughter/murder investigation that was really behind all of this and in many ways it has I think highlighted we won’t let these people get away with committing crimes in our area.