A Wallington man is facing jail today after a jury unanimously found him guilty of killing Carshalton teenager Luke Plowright.

But Peter Rogers, 26, who stabbed the 17-year-old during a fight in Benhill Avenue, Sutton, was cleared of his murder and convicted of manslaughter, following a trial lasting just over three weeks.

After yesterday's verdict, his counsel told the Old Bailey Rogers a former Highdown prison officer felt deep remorse for his actions on September 27, 2002.

James Scobie said: "On this evening, the defendant committed an offence which has lost the life of a very young man. There is deep-rooted regret for that evening.

"He took out a knife that evening and regrets doing so. But his regret will not bring back Luke Plowright. There is the deepest remorse for that loss."

Though it seems certain Rogers will be jailed for the killing at today's sentencing, His Honour Judge Stephens said: "It is far from a straight forward case as far as sentence is concerned."

In summing up on Monday, the judge told the jury they could consider a manslaughter count alongside Rogers' murder charge, to account for possible provocation or lack of intent to murder or cause grievous bodily harm.

Rogers killed Mr Plowright on what had started off as an evening of celebration for the apprentice plumber from Wrythe Lane, to mark one of his friends getting onto a college course.

Following a heavy drinking session in Cheam, the group of teenagers had travelled back to Sutton, where one of them Tony Parr had encountered Rogers on the Benhill Estate.

Rogers had been armed with a kitchen knife out of fear, following an incident earlier in the evening when he had been confronted by a group of youths.

Mr Parr and Rogers got into a fight, which beckoned Mr Plowright out of his girlfriend's house on the estate, to intervene.

He chased Rogers up Benhill Avenue, before they in turn got into a scuffle. It was then that Rogers fatally stabbed the former Glenthorne High School pupil.

In evidence, Rogers had claimed self-defence, saying he had tried to free himself from the 17-year-old's grip out of fear of Mr Plowright's friends, who were coming to back him up.

Rogers, who was holding the knife in his hand, said he only freed himself after he delivered a "thrust and forward pushing motion" towards Mr Plowright.

But he admitted that he had "probably made some very bad choices" on the fateful night.

May 1, 2003 10:00