At the age of 43, Kevin Spaine's life had spiralled out of control.
He was addicted to crack cocaine and homeless. The habitual offender had nearly 100 offences on his criminal record and had earned himself a ban from a large portion of Liverpool city centre, as well from an Aldi supermarket where he was particularly well-known for putting his talents for shoplifting to bad use.
It had not always been this way. Spaine of course found his police mugshot plastered across national newspapers this week as the boy who delivered the iconic "Accrington Stanley, who are they?" line in that famous 1980s advert for the Milk Marketing Board was convicted of murder.
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While you cannot see his face in the footage, you can hear the youthful exuberance and the innocence in his voice. He had been cast in the ad thanks in part to his promise as a junior footballer.
But, somewhere along the line, this hope was extinguished and replaced with darkness. A little over a decade on from his star turn, Spaine was serving his first prison sentence.
Another 20 years down the line, he had brutally killed a man. Learoy Venner, a man 10 years his senior in poor health, was punched and kicked to death with such force that he was left with injuries often seen in car crash victims.
There appeared to be little or no reason for the vicious assault, but the root cause was undoubtedly drugs. Liverpool Crown Court heard this week that the first of Spaine's nearly 40 court appearances came in 1999, exactly 10 years after that 1989 ad was first screened on TVs across the country.
The first time his crimes made the news was in 2001, when he was also sent to prison for the first time. It came after the then 22-year-old, of Upper Parliament Street in Toxteth, was "trapped by undercover police officers in a large scale drugs investigation".
Spaine was arrested as part of Operation Camelia, which "targeted drug suppliers" in the Toxteth area. He "accepted he was at the lower end" and "apologised for his involvement" but was jailed for three-and-a-half years, having admitted supplying heroin and crack cocaine and being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.
Offences of assault with intent to rob, affray and assaulting emergency services workers were added to his rap sheet over the comings years, as was a conviction for possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply in 2005. Spaine was locked up for two years for wounding in 2014, and was convicted of threatening behaviour and assault in 2019.
That same year saw him handed a criminal behaviour order after being "identified as a prolific shoplifter who threatened and used violence towards shop staff". Then homeless at the age of 40, he was barred from entering "a large part" of the city centre – including Liverpool ONE, the Cavern Quarter, Lime Street Station and St John's Shopping Centre – as part of this order.
The CBO also saw him banned from the Aldi store on Clock Tower Drive in Walton. Magistrates made it a criminal offence for him to "remain in any shop premises if asked to leave by a member of staff of those premises" or "carry any knife or bladed article in any public place" in Merseyside.
After a conviction for racially aggravated harassment in 2021, Spaine walked free from court only three months before Mr Venner's murder. He was handed an eight-week imprisonment suspended for a year in March 2022 for assaulting an emergency services worker.
On April 16 last year, Spaine was arrested again for another assault on an emergency services worker but was released on bail. He later received four weeks for this offence on October 25 last year, with the suspended sentence also activated – resulting in a total of 12 weeks.
Spaine also has "numerous convictions" for theft and possession of drugs. Alan Kent KC, prosecuting, told the court during his sentencing: "Those antecedents point to a man who is short tempered, who starts fights and reacts in a violence manner.
The killer himself gave his thoughts on how he ended up in this situation. Speaking from the stand, Spaine said: "We were just in a bad situation.
"We had chaotic lives, our lives were a mess. I wasn't thinking straight, Leroy weren't – we were in a bad place. It all happened so fast. I hadn't slept for days, I hadn't eaten for days.
"How can you expect me to know what I was doing? I wasn't in control. I know I'm responsible, but its obvious I didn't mean it. We grew up together, I didn't hate him.
"We were in a really, really dark place. A dark thing happened and I've got to live with that. I never intended to do that. How could I intend to do that to someone I know?
"I turned up at the house to get a wash, how scattys that? It wasn't a normal situation, I wasn't a normal person living a normal life.
"Leroy was my mate. We were both living the same lifestyles. It was just one of them things fuelled by drugs and chaos and a scatty situation. Do you think if drugs weren't involved, this would have happened?
"Do you think if poverty and homelessness weren't involved, this would have happened? There were other factors involved in this.
"The situation, the lives we were living were not normal. How can you put me in this position as if I've done this on a clear head?
"How can you nail someone like that down as, I don't know, the picture you're trying to paint of me? That person wasn't me, you can see the factors involved blew up this situation.
"If me and Leroy weren't on drugs, this wouldn't have happened. I know that, and I think anyone who knows anything about life knows that.
"You're making out like I'm callous or heartless. I know these people, we're not strangers. I was in a mad state – erratic, paranoid, fidgeting. I was probably not in a good mind state.
"My mind was ticking overtime. I was dealing with a lot of things. It's scatty, the whole situation was scatty. My mind state was all over the place.
When Mr Kent suggested that Spaine had gone to the apartment to get money or drugs from Mr Venner, whose benefits had been paid in the morning of the day he died, he responded: "No, the reason I was there was to get a wash. I make my own money, I buy my own drugs.
"I made my own graft, I got off my a*** and made my own money to buy my own drugs. Don't make out that I'm going round there to do something sinister like rob him.
"I'd rather run out with a bag of steak out of the Asda than rob someone. That's not the case. I had easier options I would have rather took. It's nasty what you're doing.
"I feed my own addiction, I never asked anyone for anything. Don't try and twist things. That was not the case mate, I swear to you – hand on heart. That was not my intention, never in a million years mate."
Jurors previously heard that Mr Venner had been living at an address on Belmont Drive in Anfield temporarily at the time of the incident on July 27 2022, sleeping on a camp bed in the lounge. The flat was "being used as a drug den", with Spaine, who was again "sofa surfing" after been banned from his mum's home under bail conditions following a row, among its frequent visitors.
But he was refused entry by the 53-year-old victim shortly after midday on the day in question. Spaine was eventually let in by returning tenant Mark Kelly, who then left again in order to top up the electricity meter.
It was at this point that Mr Venner was fatally assaulted, with Spaine leaving him lying unconscious and going to his mum's house to change his clothes afterwards. He was arrested on suspicion of murder on Edge Lane that evening, at which point he responded: "That's a big charge, what do you mean murder?"
Under interview with detectives, Spaine later stated that Mr Venner – from Toxteth – had "taken two swings at him" and he had returned four or five blows "in self-defence". A post-mortem investigation revealed that he had suffered "multiple forceful blows", causing a brain injury – "the sort of trauma usually associated with a car crash or a fall from height".
John Harrison KC, defending, told the court on Wednesday: "This defendant’s life has been ruined and dominated by the abuse of illegal drugs. He has a very long history of criminal offending.
"We know he’s been in this situation for 20 years or more, but he wasn’t always like that. Mr Spaine was a very promising young footballer, and he appeared in a very famous advertisement on the television – an advert for milk involving Accrington Stanley.
"He played a part in that advertisement. At an age of 10 or 12, or however old he was, he had a promising future.
"Shortly afterwards, he sinks into a life of criminality. Twenty years later, he is convicted of murder.
"It’s not an unfamiliar spiral to the court, but it is a tragic one. Of course, he respects the jury’s verdict."
Spaine previously shook his head as the unanimous guilty verdict was delivered on Tuesday afternoon after two hours and 39 minutes of deliberations. He sat with his head bowed as he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years the following morning.
Sentencing, Judge Brian Cummings KC said: "Only you will know the detail of what happened in the flat at that time. You have shown yourself to be a shocking liar.
"I am sure there was no element of self-defence in anything you did to Leroy Venner. What possible threat could he have presented to you?
"I am sure you struck him multiple heavy punches to the face and then finished your attack by kicking him, probably more than once and with force. What precisely caused you to want to do all of this will never be known to anyone other than yourself.
"You were very insistent of wanting to get into the flat. I am sure your interest in gaining entry to the flat was because you hoped to get either drugs or money – probably, you were disappointed in that hope.
"I do not find this was a murder for gain. However I am sure when you gained access to the flat, having been kept hanging around, those things led you to launch a ferocious attack upon him.
"He had no chance of escaping you or fighting you off. You attacked and killed a man whom you knew to be weak and in poor health.
"I accept that the eruption of violence occurred spontaneously, albeit you were in an agitated state having regard to the fact you’d been kept waiting outside. You left him unconscious on his back and breathing in his own blood for something like half an hour before he actually died."
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