A TEEN has been sentenced to 12 months in a young offender’s institute for perverting the course of justice.

Ellis Seivwright had previously pleaded guilty to the charge at a hearing in June.

Seivwright, 18, had a conversation with three teens following the assault of a man in Keene Street, Newport, on January 12.

Callum Banton and Brandon Crosdale, both 18 and Shaquille Crosdale, 19, all of Fleetwood Close, were cleared of causing the death of Jan Jedrzejewski at Newport Crown Court on Monday, November 20.

The trio were sentenced on counts of perverting the course of public justice.

Defending Seivwright, Jeffrey Jones said that evidence was “not destroyed or shoved under beds”.

Mr Jones said: “He admits that three phones were received and that there was a conversation.

“He came clean in the second interview and provided the police with truthful information.”

Mr Jones said that the three teenagers came to Seivwright, of Gleebe Street, in Newport, as “someone to get advice from” and that he told them to talk.

He said none of the clothes he collected had blood on them and none of the phones had evidence.

“His behaviour had no effect in faulting the investigation,” Mr Jones continued.

Sentencing him at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday [TUE] morning, judge Eleri Rees said that in sentences of charges of perverting the course of justice there has to be an element of “deterrence”.

She said: “Anybody who willingly assists or is involved in the withholding of evidence makes the police’s job a lot more difficult.”

She sentenced him to 12 months in prison to be served in a young offender’s institution. Seivwright served his sentence whilst on remand, prior to sentencing.

Mr Jedrzejewski was found unresponsive close to Cromwell Road at around 11pm on January 12 and died the following day.

In September, Richard Wallis, 43, of Keene Street, was convicted of life imprisonment for the murder of the 41-year-old Polish national, fatally kicking him in the head as he lay on the ground after trial.