The heartbroken partner of a dad who was stabbed to death at a family birthday party said she has nothing but “anger and hatred" for her killer nephew.
Joshua Morgan 21, stabbed his uncle, Paul Morgan, twice during a party where he was celebrating his 21st birthday. Morgan rejected a hug from his uncle before following him across Prince William Street, in Dingle, and stabbing him in the back in September 2020.
Jailing Morgan for life, with a minimum term of 17 years, Judge David Aubrey, QC, said: “You had a love-hate relationship with your uncle. Tragically you had lost your father when young and thus your uncle became somewhat of a father figure to you.
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"However you appeared to show some resentment and jealousy towards your cousins - they had a father, you did not. There was something festering inside you."
Paul Morgan's partner, Lisa Robinson, had her powerful and moving victim impact statement read to the court by the family’s police liaison officer. The statement concluded that despite their devastation "we will get through it and we will never be defeated".
She continued: “However, you Joshua, are evil, there’s no good future for you and I hope you rot in hell.”
Ms Robinson, who referred to her late partner as Morgan during her statement, said: "I could never imagine that what we thought was going to be a normal day would change our lives forever. I replay that day in my mind constantly.
"I can still hear the screams from my kids to this very day. I feel pain and sadness every single day not only for myself but for my four kids too.
"I never thought that it would be possible to break down on a daily basis - which has been my life for the last 19 months. Every single day I cry, every single day I feel like I can’t cope, every single day I question why this happened. I don’t understand it."
She continued: "I feel that there is no one else in the world who could possibly feel the way I feel as Morgan was the love of my life, my partner and my soulmate. No matter what anybody else thought of him or our relationship I chose him and he chose me and we stuck together through all the good times and all the bad times."
Ms Robinson detailed the impact on the couple’s four children and told the court how "nothing was too much trouble" for Paul. She said: "Morgan would do anything for his kids, nothing was too much trouble. If he had to go to six different shops for six different kinds of sweets he would do that if that’s what the kids wanted.
"I miss everything about him and will love him until the day I die. I didn’t think anyone could love me the way Morgan loved me and I feel that. He gave me love like no one else and I will always be Morgan’s girl."
In her statement, Ms Robinson, who sat in the public gallery, said: "I miss the future that we would have all had together however that may have been. We were together for 20 years and although things between me and Morgan weren’t always perfect, he was my perfect and perfect for me and my kids.”
Devastated Ms Robinson said she imagines her partner is working away and will come home some time soon. She continued: "Joshua, I don’t understand why you murdered your uncle, your own flesh and blood.
"Is it because your dad took himself away from you? Is that why you have taken my kids’ dad away? You remember that pain when that happened to you so why would you put my kids through the same pain?
"We tried to get you the mental health care you need to help you when no one else did. You were all playing pool the night before, laughing and joking, then the next day you killed him.
"You took our future away in them few moments when you murdered him and you took away your own future away and the future of your own family. You have split all the family up and forced your nan and grandad to take sides….my kids have not only lost their dad, they have lost their nan and grandad too."
She said that she has nothing but "anger and hatred" for [Joshua] Morgan.
Ms Robinson said her eldest son will be a dad soon, and the child will grow up without his grandad. She said: "Morgan would have been the best grandad and will now miss out on all these milestones and miss out on everything our kids will achieve in the future."
At the end of the hearing, during which the defendant showed no emotion, Judge David Aubrey QC, said: “I would like to pay tribute to the dignity of those seated in the public gallery.”
The court had heard the defendant, who since the murder has been diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, lost his dad aged nine when he took his own life. The murder took place the day after the anniversary of his death.
