I'm a convicted killer but I'm innocent now probation are forcing me to return to the scene of the crime
A murderer jailed for brutally killing a man in a Blackpool flat has been forced to return to the resort after 17 years behind bars.
Stephen Kidd, 53, was jailed in 2009 for the murder of 60-year-old Darren Presley, found slain in his Devonshire Road flat.
Kidd and another man, Lea Mason, 33, attacked Mr Presley with knives and a frying pan, doused him in paint and repeatedly stamped on his head. The 60-year-old died from head injuries suffered in the attack in January 2008.
Kidd and Mason pleaded guilty to murder and were both sentenced to a minimum of 17 years a before being eligible for parole. However, Kidd later claimed innocence and blamed his guilty plea on being ‘wrongly advised’ by his defence counsel.
He was released on parole in January after serving a full 17-year sentence and now finds himself facing a ‘traumatic’ return to the resort.
“Don’t sent me back!”
“Blackpool is the last place in the world I want to be,” says Kidd, who will be forced to make an unwanted return to the resort this week, after nearly two decades in prison.
The convicted killer says the Probation Service has insisted that he return to the town where he and Mason murdered Presley nearly two decades ago.
Kidd, who suffered a stroke in prison and now uses a wheelchair, has been told to attend the probation office in Talbot Road on Wednesday - a stone’s throw from the flat where Darren Presley was horrifically murdered 17 years ago.
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If Kidd fails to attend probation in Blackpool, a warrant is likely to be issued for his arrest.
Speaking to the Gazette, the dad-of-three said: “I’m 48 hours away from being forced to return to Blackpool.
“Nobody wants me there. I certainly don’t want to go back there. It’s a painful and traumatic memory for everyone involved.
“So why make me return? I have PTSD and significant trauma from what happened in 2008, and I’m sure others are still suffering. Why force everyone to relive it?
“I’d happily go anywhere else, but why Blackpool? I don’t see any benefit in having me back there?
“I don’t want to be there, the family don’t want me there, the town doesn’t want me there. Nothing good can come of this.
“The probation office in Talbot Road is just a short walk from my old flat and the scene of Darren’s murder. It’s going to be hell going back there and being forced to relive it all.
“I will fight this until the moment I have to get on that train.”
Kidd has appealed to Blackpool South MP Chris Webb to consider his cause, as he desperately seeks the Home Office to reconsider his probation requirements.
The Home Office was approached for comment.
Attack 'torture'
Speaking after Kidd’s sentencing in 2009, Det Supt Kevin Toole, of Lancashire Police, said: "I am pleased with the sentences being handed down today and believe they reflect what was a brutal and violent murder on a man that offered no threat to these individuals.
"Darren Presley was a vulnerable, kind old man who was exploited by the callous defendants to finance alcohol and, when drunk, suffered numerous and frequent bullying episodes.
"These acts were tantamount to torture and Mason and Kidd clearly have no regard for other human beings. They are thankfully now behind bars and away from the public."
A third person, Kirsty Burdon, then aged 19 and formerly of Cookson Street, Blackpool, pleaded guilty to assisting an offender was sentenced to 11 months in prison.
The charge involved her lying to police by supporting the account given to police by Stephen Kidd.