A man has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for stabbing a burglar to death after seeing him break into his home.
The attack was initiated by Karl Townsend, 32, who was cleared of murdering Jordan Brophy, 31, but was convicted of manslaughter, on Thursday, August 1, according to Merseyside Police.
The court heard that Brophy and three others had targeted Townsend’s home while he, his partner, and child were out. Per BBC News, Townsend was alerted to the men's arrival via a doorbell camera and app. The court heard how Townsend returned to the property carrying a large kitchen knife.
Per the Independent, the father-of-one stabbed Brophy repeatedly in the head, face, and arms inside the property, before stabbing him again in the neck on the road outside, the court heard.
The jurors were told that the burglars arrived at the man's house in Beechwood Avenue with vehicles and had a getaway driver waiting outside.
Their arrival was captured by cameras through Townsead's Ring doorbell app - which prompted him to return to his property carrying the knife, along with his younger half-brother Jamie Cunningham, who was also carrying a knife.
The 32-year-old was convicted of Category A manslaughter and possession of a bladed article and jailed for 19 years at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday (August 6).
Judge Andrew Menary QC described Brophy's injuries, saying: "On any level, the unlawful violence used by you was truly shocking."
"Jordan Brophy was no angel, he had a number of previous convictions and was under investigation for other matters at the time," he continued. "Whatever he was doing on the night, he plainly did not deserve to die as he did."
Anesta Weekes QC defended Townsend and said the incident began with the "unlawful trespass" of his home, continuing: "His case was that he wanted them to be gone."
"What he never anticipated was, carrying his own knife to use towards somebody else, that those in the house may carry weapons," she added.
Weekes also said there may have been no defensive injuries on Townsend because he was "better at defending himself" to which Judge Menary added that Brophy was not armed with a weapon when he was attacked and was unable to defend himself.
Brophy's mother read a personal statement and said: "It is not in God’s plan for a mother to lose her child. I am not living nor will I ever feel like I am."
"Some days I barely exist. The holidays, the family gatherings the 100 texts and phone calls a day have been taken away from me and all I am left with are memories and photographs," she said, adding: "As a whole family, we have been torn apart.”
Townsend shrugged to members of his own family as he left the dock. He was sentenced to a concurrent sentence of two years for possession of a bladed article.
According to ITV News, his half-brother Jamie Cunningham was cleared of murder during an earlier trial.
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