Nine men sentenced to 163 years in prison for the murder of Jon-Jo Highton and for assisting offenders

SIX men found guilty of the murder of Preston man Jon-Jo Highton and three men found guilty of assisting an offender linked with the murder were all sentenced at Preston Crown Court today.

At 11.20pm on Saturday 23 August 2014 police were called to reports that a man had been stabbed on St Stephen’s Road in Preston.

Police and paramedics attended and 18 year old Jon-Jo Highton was found with serious knife injuries. He sadly died at the scene.

A post mortem examination showed that Jon-Jo had died as a result of a wound to the neck caused by some sort of blade, and had also sustained several other wounds to his face and body.

Owen Whitesmith, 19, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 27 years to serve.

Arron Graham, 23, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 29 years to serve

Stephen Walton, 24, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 26 years to serve

Craig Walton, 27, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 26 years to serve

Joshua Bore, 20, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 21 years to serve

Zaahid Patel, 20, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 20 years to serve

Liam Tunstall, 26, was found guilty of two offences of assisting an offender and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment.

John Wilding, 36, was found guilty of assisting an offender and sentenced to 4 years imprisonment.

Stuart Eastham, 33, was found guilty of assisting an offender and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment.

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