Man, 18, jailed for stabbing murder of stranger

An 18-year-old man has been jailed for life for the murder of a grandfather he did not know.

Daniel Rounce walked into a house in Queens Park Way, Leicester, where Gerald Wickes was visiting his ex-wife and son, on 22 February 2023.

Mr Wickes and his ex questioned him before Rounce fatally stabbed the 79-year-old through the heart and left.

At Leicester Crown Court on Tuesday, he was sentenced to at least 25 years in prison.

The court heard how Rounce entered the home after going missing from assisted living accommodation the day before.

He had armed himself with a knife and followed Mr Wickes’s former partner through an unlocked door.

Judge Timothy Spencer KC said he “plunged” the knife into Mr Wickes’s chest, causing a fatal wound to his heart.

Sentencing Rounce, the judge said the attack was “merciless” and described the offender as “highly dangerous”.

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