Judge jails career criminal who threatens to kill him in chilling echo of his own father's murder

A career criminal threatened to kill a judge after he was convicted of murdering his sister's boyfriend.

Daniel Breaks, 48, laughed at the jury's verdict and asked Judge Peter Openshaw: 'Can I have a second opinion Your Honour?' The judge replied: 'No'.

Breaks then shouted out: 'You suppressed the truth in this trial. I will escape prison and I will kill you.'

As the jury gasped, the judge said to them: 'I very much doubt he'll have the chance.'

The threat echoed the murder of Judge Openshaw's father, who was stabbed 12 times at his home by a crook intent on revenge.

In 1968 Judge William Openshaw had ordered 17-year-old John Smith to 18 months in Borstal for stealing scrap metal.

It was 13 years before he returned and ambushed the judge in his home.

Smith, 31, had become 'full of hate and hell-bent on settling an old score', according to The Law's Strangest Cases by Peter J Seddon.

Yesterday Breaks was jailed for 30 years which means he will not be eligible for parole until he is 78.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that he attacked Simon Sutton, who was living with his sister in Birkenhead, with a pool cue because he believed he had turned police informant over a plot to blackmail a bank.

Smith, who was convicted of the murder at Leeds Crown Court in November 1981, had hidden in the rafters of the judge's garage in Broughton, near Preston, Lancashire.

When he opened the door to get in his car, Smith dropped from the roof and launched the attack, which was disturbed by the judge's wife.

When police asked him why he killed the judge, Smith was said to have replied: "Because he was a bastard."

Today, Mr Justice Openshaw ensured that Breaks, 48, will not be eligible for parole until he is 78 for battering his sister's boyfriend Simon Sutton, 40, to death last year.

In another odd similarity, Breaks kidnapped an elderly couple at knifepoint after the murder.

Smith, fleeing the judge's killing scene, also kidnapped a man at knifepoint and forced him to drive to Scotland.

Openshaw's father was killed in 1981 in a similar incident when John Smith (pictured) stabbed him to death after he was sentenced to prison for stealing