With deadly weapons they stole precious lives - but thankfully these knife killers are off our streets and serving long sentences behind bars.
The Chronicle launched its Stop Knives Taking Lives campaign in February, following a horrific spate of tragedies on Tyneside.
And today as part of the campaign we highlight some of those responsible for inflicting unimaginable pain and loss on the loved ones of their victims.
These killers have all been convicted of taking lives using knives or other blades.
Some were found guilty or murder and others convicted of manslaughter.
In British courts all those convicted of murder are handed a mandatory life sentence.
But a judge must set a ‘minimum term’ which is the amount of time the killer must serve before being considered for parole.
Manslaughter sentences can range from a community sentence, to life in prison.
Here, we look back at the crimes of some of the North East’s violent knife killers and the sentences they are serving.
William Cambell
Samuel Campbell was knifed to death by his own brother during a row about a dog.
Drunken William Campbell took exception to the way Samuel was speaking to his pet and the pair clashed at their family home in Sunderland.
Council worker Campbell, 26, then armed himself with a sharp knife from a kitchen drawer and plunged it into his 24-year-old brother’s chest. Campbell was jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years.
Aaron Ray
Callous Aaron Ray was jailed for life for stabbing his boyfriend, Jason Brockbanks, to death in his bed after finding messages from other men on his phone.
Newcastle Crown Court heard how Jason, 24, was left to slowly bleed to death following the attack in September last year, as Ray calmly walked away from the Newcastle student flats and set about covering his tracks.
And tragically Jason, who had been studying at Northumbria University, might have survived if he had got medical attention, jurors were told..
Ray, 21, of Mayfield Road in Sunderland, was jailed for life with a minimum of 22 years, after he was found guilty of Jason's murder.
James Rutherford
This murderer told his brother ‘hope you die” after repeatedly stabbing him in a Northumberland street in a row over money.
James Rutherford knifed his half-sibling Gary Wilkie at least eight times in the street.
A court heard the attack happened after Rutherford woke in a friend’s house to find Gary had taken his phone and £160 in cash.
Rutherford, who had consumed a cocktail of heroin, cocaine, diazepam and cannabis, went to their grandmother’s house in the early hours to find Gary and asked for his belongings back.
But as they walked through Blyth, Northumberland, matters turned nasty and Rutherford pulled out a knife and stabbed his unarmed brother in various parts of his body.
The 35-year-old, of no fixed address, who admitted murder and possessing a blade was jailed for life at Newcastle Crown Court and must serve at least 17 and a half years in prison.
Ross Miller
Machete killer Ross Miller was jailed for life with a minimum of 19 years for murdering his supposed friend Brandon Lee in 2020.
Newcastle Crown Court heard how the ticking timebomb, who had a furious temper, a fascination with knives, an alcohol dependency and an interest in violent video games, chopped, stabbed and slashed his 24-year-old victim in his South Shields flat.
Police were called to the flat, on Victoria Road, shortly before 4am on May 12, 2020 after a neighbour saw Miller covered in blood and holding a knife.
When officers arrived they found Brandon with multiple stab wounds to his upper body, neck and head, – and a motionless Miller sat in an armchair with a bloodied machete nearby.
Miller, then 23, admitted killing Brandon but denied murder, claiming his actions were caused by diminished responsibility as a result of him suffering from alcohol dependency syndrome.
But a jury convicted him of murder following a three-week trial.
Joe Welsh
Joe Welsh was jailed for life with a minimum of 25 years after being found guilty of knifing his former friend Reece Allen to death in the street.
Reece, 24, died in hospital hours after he was found stabbed outside a home in West Avenue, North Shields, in January 2016.
Welsh told police he had lashed out in self defence after his victim came round to the house he was at.
But the jury at Newcastle Crown Court heard how he had lured Reece to his death by breaking his mum’s window.
After Welsh, then 25 and of no fixed address, was locked up the detective that brought him to justice issued a knife warning.
Det Insp Dave English, who led the investigation for Northumbria Police, said: “This has been a truly awful offence and Welsh has shown no remorse for his actions. He has drawn out this difficult process for the family but today the jury made the right decision and it is with thanks to them that this dangerous man is now behind bars.
“Welsh was intent on seriously injuring somebody on the day of this tragic incident.
“Unfortunately it was Reece Allen who lost his life as a result of Welsh’s callus attack.
"This tragic incident serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of carrying knives."
Nicola Lee
Nicola Lee was jailed for stabbing her partner through the heart during a drunken row.
The 44-year-old, who was described as ‘manipulative, calculating, dangerous and vicious’, in court was jailed for 14 years in 2019.
Lee killed much-loved joker Paul Taylor, 45, with a kitchen knife after a night of drinking and rowing on March 31 that year.
She then fed the police and court lies that he had inflicted the wound on himself.
A jury heard how Lee’s upstairs neighbour on Thames Avenue, Jarrow, said rowing was a regular feature of their relationship and had heard a ‘prolonged argument’ between Lee and Mr Taylor the night of Paul’s death.
Lee was heard shouting ‘it’s my house’ and repeatedly threatening ‘I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you, I will f****** kill you’.
Lee was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for 14 years.
Lee Wall
This murderer stabbed to death a friend who was “like a brother” to him after a petty row.
Lee Wall twice plunged a knife into the stomach of Daryl Fowler when a row and brawl broke out between them and their partners.
Mr Fowler died on the anniversary of his dad’s death following the attack in Leam Lane, Gateshead, in September 2020.
Wall was found guilty of murder by a jury and jailed for life with a minimum of 19 years. He and partner Emma Brown pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice after the pair tried to cover up what had happened, including lying to the police and Brown putting the murder weapon down a drain. She was jailed for 21 months.
Newcastle Crown Court heard how September 12 was a “particularly poignant day” for Mr Fowler, 28, from Newcastle, as it was the anniversary of his father’s death.
Prosecutors said Wall, 43, of no fixed address, who had 77 previous convictions and Brown, 40, who had 21 previous convictions, argued with Mr Fowler and his fiancée, Coreena Jamieson, at Brown’s home over either a mobile phone or drugs and it ended in the stabbing.
Sentencing Wall and Brown, Judge Paul Sloan QC said: “Daryl Fowler was a much-loved family man who had great difficulty coping with his father’s death.
“Now the family have again been left devastated, this time by Daryl’s murder. No sentence I’m permitted by law to impose could ever begin to ease their suffering.”
Trimann Dhillon
Bubbly and funny, 24-year-old Northumbria University graduate Alice Ruggles was brutally murdered by obsessed Dhillon.
Her throat was cut when she was found in her flat in Rawling Road, Bensham, Gateshead, on October 12 2016.
The 26-year-old Lance Corporal denied murder at Newcastle Crown Court, saying she had fallen on a carving knife during an argument.
But after hearing how the Edinburgh-based signaller with 2 Scots became obsessed with Alice and stalked her when he realised she was moving on after their intense relationship ended, the jury found him guilty of murder.
He was jailed for life with a minimum of 22 years.
Brian Cahill and Lyndsey Harper
Teenager Owen Kerry was enjoying a Christmas Eve night in 2016 when he was murdered by couple Brian Cahill and Lyndsey Harper.
The 19-year-old had only gone out for a game of pool and a couple of pints with his friend when he was cruelly knifed by Cahill at Cramlington Working Mens Club.
Cahill was told he must serve at least 26 years of a life sentence while Harper must do a minimum of 18 years.
Alan Cooper
Cooper was jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years for the brutal murder of his nephew.
Jordan Cooper, 14, was knifed to death by his uncle in a frenzied attack after a petty row over a mobile phone.
The attack happened at the home of Susan Smith - Jordan’s grandma and Cooper’s mother - in Washington, in 2011.
After a five-day trial, a jury at Newcastle Crown Court convicted him of murder.
He had admitted killing Jordan but claimed he had suffered an abnormality of mind which diminished his responsibility.
Shaun Riches
Much loved brother Fise Ames Abdou died after being repeatedly knifed in the legs at the home he was staying at in South Shields, in March 2022.
One blow severed a vein and he bled to death.
Shaun Riches, 24, of Wycliffe Avenue, Kenton, Newcastle was cleared of murdering Fise but convicted of manslaughter after a trial at Newcastle Crown Court.
Paying tribute to her brother Fise's sister Martika Ames Abdou, 29, said: " He was always there if we needed him. He would always check in and make sure we were alright.
“He was funny, he was very high-spirited all the time and he was always on the go. He was very outgoing and he loved bikes.”
Andrew Somerville
Dad Tony Nichol was stabbed to death in front of his partner at a block of flats in Kenton, Newcastle in December 2021.
The 36-year-old and his girlfriend Natalie Dowds, left a friend’s flat in the block where killer Andrew Somerville was staying, and one of them banged into his door, not realising he was in.
He came out shouting and brandishing a knife, then chased Tony down some stairs and stabbed him twice.
Somerville, 42, of Columbia Grange, Kenton was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for 15 years.
