When violence erupted on a quiet street in Halewood on the evening of October 29 2021, it was already an event out of the ordinary.
The normal peace of this corner of suburban Liverpool had been disturbed in a brutal fashion as Jordan Brophy was pinned against a Fiat 500 and knifed in the jugular. Only moments beforehand, the 31-year-old had been partially-blinded and left with broken fragments of a blade lodged in his brain.
But the location and the extreme violence used were far from the only unusual elements of Mr Brophy's death at the hands of Karl Townsend, which also encompassed a stabbed cat, mysterious stolen items and a Ring doorbell camera playing a pivotal role in the events unfolding. This is the story of how the lives of two former primary school classmates were entwined through a burglary gone wrong, with fatal consequences.
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Leaving his home on Beechwood Avenue at precisely 6.26pm as the dark of the night time drew in, at that stage the killer had no reason to think anything was amiss. As such, Townsend clambered into his Mercedes GLA and set off for his mum's house on nearby Penmann Crescent.
His property was left empty at that time, with his girlfriend Amelia Rigby also out walking the dog with the couple's three-year-old child. Within five minutes of it being vacated, a convoy of three cars arrived on the street.
Mr Brophy was among them, travelling in a Mercedes A-Class. After it was confirmed nobody was home, he and two others smashed their way in through a rear door while a fourth accomplice lay in wait as a getaway driver.
Around half a mile away, Townsend and half-brother Jamie Cunningham were at their parents' home preparing to head out for a Chinese when the Townsend received a notification on his mobile phone. His Ring doorbell camera was alerting him to the presence of the intruders.
The pair hurriedly armed themselves with large knives and made their way to the scene, placing a phone call to warn Ms Rigby en route. What exactly happened after they entered the house is unclear, but 25 seconds later Mr Brophy re-emerged via the back door complaining that he was unable to see.
Inside, he had been stabbed near to his left eye. The knife had severed his right optic nerve, pierced the skull on the other side of his head and broken - leaving a section of the blade inside his brain.
Mr Brophy received several more stab wounds, one of which entered just above his right eyebrow. This blow caused severe damage to the nasal bone and entered the base of the skull.
Again, the weapon snapped due to the ferocity of the attack and a shard remained lodged within his head. Townsend's account was that the burglars had also been armed with knives, while he believed one may have even had a handgun.
He claimed Mr Brophy had emerged from upstairs brandishing a blade, and that he had been forced to fight for his life as a result. Despite his grave injuries, the burglar and his accomplices were able to flee the way they had entered.
Townsend and Cunningham left by the front door and drove away. Mr Brophy hid in a resident's front garden for a period, but then "saw a chance to break cover" and ran back out into the road.
But, by this point, the brothers had returned and a second flashpoint ensued. Perhaps in a state of confusion, Mr Brophy did not heed the beckoning calls of his associates in their getaway vehicle but instead headed in Townsend's direction.
What happened next is disputed, but what we do know is that Townsend's car ended up crashing into a garden wall. The prosecution say this was as a result of an attempt to run Mr Brophy over.
In the aftermath, Cunningham was overheard on a 999 call saying: "We saw him running, bleeding from his face. So we knew it was him who was in the house, we ran him over and ran him through with the car."
However, Townsend's explanation was that he had edged onto the pavement in order to allow the scarpering burglars' car to pass him, but as he did so he heard what he believed were the words "shoot him". His reaction - supposedly with the thought of the firearm in mind - was to duck for cover, causing him to career his Merc into the brickwork.
Footage taken in the street was said to have shown Mr Brophy pleading his innocence during a confrontation, saying "it wasn't me, it wasn't". The camera then allegedly captured Townsend threatening him: "I just seen you in my house. Jordan, you know what you’re doing, robbing my house. Tell me lad or I’ll kill you."
In all the commotion, Townsend then began tussling with a man called Thomas Barnes on a neighbour's driveway. He seemingly believed Mr Barnes had been one of the raiders, when in fact he had accompanied Townsend's mum to the scene.
Nevertheless, Townsend stabbed him. Prosecutor Peter Glesner described how the "red mist had descended and he was acting in an indiscriminate frenzy".
Soon enough, his attentions returned to Mr Brophy. He was pinned against a Fiat 500 and, as one witness described it, began "beating the hell out of him".
Townsend's view was that he had perceived Mr Brophy to have been running directly at him. He said he had punched his adversary in reaction to this apparent threat.
But Townsend was in fact stabbing him with the remnants of the kitchen knife he was still clutching. Mr Brophy was knifed three times, with one blow severing his jugular.
This caused "catastrophic" blood loss and he was pronounced dead in hospital shortly after 8pm, having been "subjected to extremes of violence". Mr Glesner described it as a "brutal and ruthless killing, whether out of revenge or punishment".
Witness Jennifer Burns described her desperate but ultimately futile attempts to save Mr Brophy's life. She had been cooking tea for her children when one of them alerted her to a fight erupting outside.
Ms Burns said: "He was just covered in blood. I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. You could see it, you could see it in his eyes. It was like a horror film.
"I asked the kids to get towels. They brought a small towel, so I asked them for more and they brought bigger ones out and we applied them to his head. He was just saying 'Am I dying? Am I dying?'."
Townsend disposed of his broken number plate a few roads away on Pendleton Green, where he and Cunningham were picked up in an Audi by their dad. He called the police himself to "make his own complaint" at around 7.30pm, telling a call handler: "I've just been attacked in my house by three fellas."
Making claims that one intruder had been "aiming" a knife at him, Townsend stated he was told to "f*** off Karl" and "go away now or I'm going to stab you". During the altercation he had ended up "rolling on the floor fighting" and hitting one of the gang, and said during the 999 call: "I've been cut and he's been cut as well."
He and Cunningham were two of six men subsequently arrested as Merseyside Police investigated the events. Both "largely made no comment" under interview, although their solicitors read out prepared statements.
Townsend's said: "I became aware of a burglary in progress at my partner's address. Fearing for her safety and that of my son, I went to the address.
"I opened the door and was met by the burglars who were carrying weapons. An altercation took place between us - any action taken by me was only ever in defence of myself, my family and the property."
Fast forward around six months, Townsend and Cunningham first went on trial in April charged with murder and possession of a bladed article in a public place. Their trial at Liverpool Crown Court disturbingly heard that Townsend's cat Cally had been stabbed during the burglary.
The family pet was found by officers with a knife wound around 3cm to 4cm deep, close to her spine. The attack was described as a "deliberate action that would have taken some moderate force".
It was also revealed Mr Brophy, of St Helens, had previous convictions for affray and making threats with a bladed article. This included an incident in March 2016, which saw him threaten a man with a knife while asking him for £300.
Another in June 2021 saw him do the same to another man after an altercation outside a doctor's surgery. He had once been a worker at the Jaguar Land Rover plant in Halewood, but his life had fallen apart and into criminality after becoming unemployed.
Meanwhile Townsend spoke of the last time he had seen Mr Brophy before he stabbed him to death, after their fathers had spent Christmas together. He said: "The last time I had seen Jordan Brophy he was shaking my hand for having his dad over for Christmas dinner."
After three weeks, Cunningham was cleared of murder and Townsend was found guilty of possession of a bladed article in a public place. But the jury failed to reach verdicts on the remaining charges.
Townsend - who was convicted of wounding and assault after attacking two men during a drunken incident in Liverpool city centre in 2008 - reacted angrily at their failure to return a conclusion on himself. Having shouted abuse at the jurors, he was rapped for contempt of court and handed seven days behind bars for his outburst.
Just over two months later a retrial began on July 15, on what would have been Mr Brophy's 32nd birthday. This time proceedings were disrupted by Covid-19 cases, although Cunningham changed his plea to guilty on the possession of a blade count midway through.
The panel of six men and six woman acquitted Townsend of murder on Thursday, August 5, after 10 hours and two minutes of deliberations. However, he was found guilty of manslaughter by a majority of 10 to two.
Whether this had been a random break-in or not was a bone of contention between the parties during Townsend's two subsequent murder trials. He maintained that was the case, and that nothing had been taken from the address.
However, Ms Rigby was heard to say afterwards the invaders had "got everything, everything was gone". And one of the trio had been caught on camera leaving carrying a plastic bag that they had not entered with.
The answer was that Townsend was a drug dealer. He himself confessed he had once been a supplier of illicit substances, although he claimed to have ceased his involvement before October last year.
Evidence on his mobile phone linking him to dealing stretched from 2019 to 2021, but the last time such messages were seen was six weeks before Mr Brophy's killing. At the heart of the matter was the allegation the burglars were "after drugs and drug money and Townsend wanted to protect his stash".
He admitted that there may have been a quantity of cannabis in the house at the time of the burglary. However, Townsend said that this would have been a small amount for personal use only.
Judge Andrew Menary QC's findings upon sentencing were particularly damning on this and several other fronts. Not only did he rule that class A and B drug dealing was his primary source of income, he also found that Mr Brophy had not been armed with a knife - nor did any of his accomplices have a gun.
Locking him up for 19 years, the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool also rejected Townsend's claims of self-defence as "frankly absurd". And he had also incited Cunningham and other associates to arm themselves and make their way to the scene in a "collective response".
Perhaps Karl Townsend could have got away with the first attack in the eyes of the law, although his defence would still face a question mark due to the ferocity of his use of the knife. Perhaps the crash outside was indeed innocent as he said, rather than an attempt to run Mr Brophy over.
But the third incident - which came after both parties had disengaged and left the scene, and after the victim had already suffered injuries which would likely have resulted in his death regardless - might well have been what tipped the balance in the eyes of the jury. Rendered blind in one eye and with chunks of metal from the broken knife embedded deep within his skull, Jordan Brophy was unlikely to have been a threat to anyone.
Yet Townsend continued, finishing what had been started earlier - whatever the rights and wrongs of how that came about. And whatever the rights and wrongs of Mr Brophy's criminal history and his actions in breaking into Townsend's home, he did not deserve to die a bloody and gruesome death.
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