The heartbroken mum of a teenager who was stabbed to death as he walked home from a party faced her son's killer in court and told him: "You tore our hearts out and shattered our lives."
Liverpool FC fan Luke O'Connor, 19, was knifed on his way home from a Halloween event by Shiloh Pottinger, 20. Pottinger had reacted 'violently and unpredictably' after a joke was made about his skateboard by Luke's friend, and stabbed the Manchester Metropolitan University student repeatedly with a stiletto-type blade on Wilmslow Road in Fallowfield in October last year.
Pottinger, a music producer studying at BIMM university, was found not guilty of murder by a jury, but convicted of manslaughter following a three-week trial, reports the MEN.
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During a sentencing hearing at Manchester Crown Court today, June 19, Luke's mum Carolyn O'Connor fought back tears, as she took to the witness box to deliver a victim impact statement.
She said: "Luke was not looking for a fight that night. The court has seen the CCTV that proves this. It was not in his DNA. Luke had chosen to walk away from something that was escalating."
She said her son paid the 'ultimate price' for 'standing up to his killer'.
She hit out at Pottinger, claiming he was 'blowing kisses' to his family during the trial, and said: "What I would do to see my son and blow kisses. This person has shown no remorse and has not taken any responsibility for his actions. I refuse for your name to pass my lips because you don't deserve it. You took his last breath. You tore our hearts out and shattered our lives."
She said her son was "beautiful and kind" with "the ability to light up any room he went into".
She said: "He was a gentle giant, and had a heart of gold. He really was living life to the full. He was kind, he saw the positive in anything or anyone, and he was calm. Luke made me proud every single day of his life. That is one thing that can never be taken away from me."
Pottinger's defence barrister, Siobhan Grey KC said her client had no previous convictions and was of "good character", and displayed a "lack of maturity" at the time of the killing, which happened when he was 19.
Pottinger's 15-year sentence, handed down by Judge Nicholas Dean KC, was captured on camera in a historic first for Manchester's courts.
A TV camera was allowed into the city's crown court for the first time in a Manchester homicide case, following a change to the law which also allowed for the broadcast of the Thomas Cashman sentencing in April.
The judge said: "Many parents feel a sense of trepidation when their children go off to university.
"No parent, though, expects their child to be senselessly attacked and killed. Their child's life, to be taken away in events from start to finish, which lasted just a handful of seconds."
Judge Dean said he agreed with Mr O'Connor's mum that Pottinger had shown 'no remorse' for his actions that night. He said: "You have felt sorry for one person and one person only, that is yourself."
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