Mentally Ill Man Detained After Manslaughter of Homeless Victim in Gateshead

Evan Lyons, 27, has been detained indefinitely in a high-security psychiatric hospital after admitting manslaughter for the fatal beating of Christopher Phillips, a 42-year-old homeless man, with a barbell in Gateshead in August 2023. Lyons, diagnosed with severe paranoid schizophrenia, had stopped taking his prescribed medication and was under the influence of class A drugs and alcohol at the time of the attack. The brutal assault occurred while Phillips was sleeping in a hallway of Tennyson Court flats, resulting in catastrophic brain injuries that caused his death. Lyons had a history of violent behavior, including a racist attack on an asylum seeker with a pizza cutter and blinding a fellow inmate with a pool cue. Police found a 5-foot metal weight bar covered in Phillips' blood in Lyons’ flat, and DNA evidence linked Lyons to the weapon. Authorities hope Lyons' detention will bring some closure to Phillips’ family, who endured a difficult two-year investigation into the horrific killing.