The sister of a murdered busker has tearfully paid tribute to the "funny, quick-witted and highly intelligent" musician.
Adrian Swift reported to paramedics that he had been beaten with a bat and pushed down the stairs by housemate Cheryl O'Callaghan during an assault at their home on Bishopsgate Street in Wavertree, also telling a 999 call that he had been "battered s***less". He died aged 57 the following day as a result of his injuries. He later told a taxi driver after discharging himself from hospital that he had been in the "wrong place at the wrong time".
O'Callaghan's boyfriend Steven Hardaker and a fourth housemate, Adam Oldland, colluded to tell a "cowardly" string of untruths to the emergency services in a desperate cover up following the brutal attack, with their web of lies also including a false claim that Mr Swift had suffered his injuries during a fall. All three were jailed at Liverpool Crown Court this week.
