Man, 22, is found guilty of murdering Tyson Fury’s 31-year-old cousin when he stabbed him in the neck in brawl outside bar
- Liam O’Pray fatally stabbed Rico Burton, cousin of heavyweight boxer Fury
A man has been found guilty of murdering Tyson Fury’s cousin in a bar brawl.
Liam O’Pray fatally stabbed Rico Burton, cousin of the world heavyweight boxing champion, outside a bar in Altrincham, Cheshire.
The 22-year-old slashed at Mr Burton, 31, with a seven-inch blade after violence erupted between two groups of men in the early hours of August 22, last year.
Liam O’Pray, pictured, murdered Rico Burton and wounding Harvey Reilly with intent
Mr Burton (left), who is the cousin of boxer Tyson Fury (right), died after being stabbed in the neck outside a bar in Altrincham
Mr Burton died of massive blood loss after a knife almost completely severed the major carotid artery in his neck, while a second man, Harvey Reilly, 18, was also stabbed in the same incident, Manchester Crown Court heard.
O’Pray had a previous conviction for having a knife in public in 2019, but the defendant had lied to the jury: ‘I’m not a violent person.’
Damning CCTV played in court showed a fight erupt between the defendant’s friends and Mr Burton’s family and friends at Goose Green, a courtyard of bars.
O’Pray had earlier been refused entry to a bar and it is claimed told a doorman he was a professional boxer and would be back and ’cause him an issue’, which he denied.
Door staff and witnesses described the defendant as a ‘loose cannon’ and ‘very erratic’.
At just gone 3am, a witness told the court ‘absolute chaos’ broke out as O’Prey’s friend, Malachi Hewitt-Brown, was punched by Mr Burton’s cousin, Chasiah Burton.
Mr Burton also then aimed a punch at Mr Hewitt-Brown.
A second later, O’Pray struck the fatal blow with the knife to the left side of Rico Burton’s neck, the court heard.
A police cordon and uniformed officers stand by a bar in Goose Green, Altrincham, in the early hours of August 22, last year
Marked police cars and vans in the streets of Altrincham after the incident on August 22, last year
Michael Brady KC, prosecuting, asked the defendant: ‘You got the knife out of your pocket and the blade exposed before any punch was thrown?
‘Did you warn anyone? Did you say, ‘I have got a knife, get away’? Did you wave it about?’
O’Pray said: ‘Everyone was in my face. I didn’t say a word. I was surrounded by them. I just reacted.’
Mr Brady added: ‘This is just standard for you, going out drinking, being violent.’
The prosecutor suggested O’Pray was ‘pretty much always carrying a knife.’
But O’Pray told the jury a month or so before the fatal incident he had been left covered, ‘head to toe’ in blood, kicked and stabbed in the hand in a fight after his £500 hat had been taken from him.
The defendant said he bought the lock-knife because he was ‘worried’ after the July incident and to ‘defend myself’ as being beaten up had played on his mind.
He also said he had used the knife as a tool in his job as a groundworker.
O’Pray, from Swinton, Salford, was found guilty of murder by a jury of seven women and five men after three and a half hours of deliberations following a three-week trial.
Relatives of Mr Burton who packed the public gallery shouted ‘yes’ as the guilty verdict was delivered.
O’Pray in the dock made no reaction.
He was also found guilty of wounding with intent by slashing and stabbing Harvey Reilly, 17 at the time and now 18, during the same incident in the early hours of Sunday morning on August 22 last year.
The trial was told trouble began after a fight between the defendant’s friends and Mr Burton’s family and friends at Goose Green, a courtyard of bars in Altrincham, Cheshire.
Judge Alan Conrad KC said he will pass sentence on August 4, though the defendant faces a mandatory life sentence for murder.
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