Heroic Blackpool dad 'died protecting his family' after knife-wielding teenager Levi Westhead stormed their home

A Blackpool dad of two was hailed ‘a true man and a true hero’ after standing up to his young daughter’s enraged, knife-wielding ex when he tried to force his way into their house.
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Mark Webster, 50, was stabbed multiple times by Levi Westhead, 18, after the teenager showed up at his home demanding to see his daughter while armed with a large kitchen knife on the evening of July 23, 2021.

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In statements from Mr Webster’s widow Michelle, his 16 year old daughter and 12 year old son, the dad was described as ‘an extra special human being’ ‘a placid gentleman’, ‘loved by so many people’, ‘gentle’, ‘lovable’, ‘a true man’ and a ‘true hero’.

Mark Webster 'died protecting his family'Mark Webster 'died protecting his family'
Mark Webster 'died protecting his family'

He had shown ‘nothing but kindness’ to Westhead, who had been in a turbulent relationship with his daughter for 18 months, during which time he was ‘controlling, and behaved in an apparently rather sinister way’, bombarding her with abusive texts.

The court heard how, on the night of the crime, Westhead had armed himself with the knife and travelled to the Webster home with the intention of threatening the girl into taking him back.

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Sentencing the teen, Judge Simon Medland QC said: “You were in a state of anguished confusion, muddled thinking which did not really amount to any plan. It was a ridiculous dramatic outburst by you which had terrible consequences which I do not conclude you had planned or even really contemplated. It was illustrative of your approach to the whole question of your relationship with (the girl), a sort of teenage crush which had gone on far too long and which you just did not (perhaps could not) understand to be over.

“Your conduct at the Webster’s house was as if you were living out the consequence-free conduct which you would have seen playing computer games over many isolated hours in your room at home.

"I am sure you took the knife there deliberately and intending on brandishing it as a prop in some dramatic outburst, some final desperate show-down with (the girl) to prove your devotion to her and reclaim her in your life. I cannot be sure that you had any premeditated determination to use it cause serious injury or death to anyone, not yourself, not (the girl) and certainly not to Mark, who had never shown you anything but kindness and consideration.

"I was sure, however, that the prosecution’s assertion that you were controlling and behaved in an apparently rather sinister way to (the girl) by spamming her and intruding into her life when she plainly did not want to be with you was well-founded.”

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