Karl Townsend Wiki
Karl Townsend Biography
Who is Karl Townsend?
A jury acquitted Karl Townsend, 32, of the murder of Jordan Brophy, 31, outside his home in Halewood, Merseyside, on October 29 last year, but found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Brophy and three others had attacked Townsend’s home while he, his partner and his son were away, intending to carry out a smash-and-grab robbery to steal a stash of controlled drugs.
Sentencing him at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, Judge Andrew Menary QC said: “Jordan Brophy was not an angel, he had several previous convictions and was under investigation for other matters at the time.”
Whatever he did that night, he evidently didn’t deserve to die the way he did.
Murder
A jury acquitted Karl Townsend , 32, of the murder of Jordan Brophy , 31, outside his home in Halewood, Merseyside, on October 29 last year, but found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
The court heard that the thieves arrived at the property in a convoy of vehicles and had a driver who fled outside.
His arrival was caught on camera via a Ring Doorbell app, and Townsend returned to his house with a large kitchen knife, along with his younger half-brother, Jamie Cunningham, who was also carrying a knife.
Townsend stabbed Mr. Brophy repeatedly in the head, face and arms inside the property, before stabbing him again in the neck in the street, the court heard.
A sob could be heard from the public gallery as the judge described Mr. Brophy’s injuries.
He said: ‘On any level, the unlawful violence used by you was truly shocking.’
Statement
In a statement read in court, Mr. Brophy’s mother, Lisa Ward, said: “Jordan was by no means perfect and innocent, but no one ever, ever had the right to take him away from me.”
She said Mr Brophy had taken the “wrong path in life” after losing a job at Jaguar Land Rover, where he had worked with her, and had mental health problems.
She said that after waiting more than two years for a mental health referral, he had an appointment with a psychiatrist on November 4, but died before he could attend.
Anesta Weekes QC, defending, said the incident began with the ‘illegal entry’ of Townsend’s house by three men.
She said: ‘Her case of him was that he wanted them to leave. What he never anticipated was that by bringing his own knife to use on someone else, those in the house might carry weapons.
Family
Members of Mr. Brophy’s family were shocked when Ms. Weekes said that Mr. Townsend may not have sustained defensive injuries because he was “better at defending himself”.
But Judge Menary said he discovered that Brophy was not armed with a gun when he was attacked by Townsend.
He said: ‘He did not expect a confrontation.’
About 10 members of Brophy’s family sat in the public gallery for the hearing and cheered as the sentence was announced.
Townsend shrugged at members of his own family as he walked off the dock.
He was sentenced to a two-year concurrent sentence for possession of a sharp item.
Cunningham, 23, of Penmann Crescent, Halewood, who was acquitted of murder and manslaughter in a previous trial, was given a two-year community sentence of supervision, with 10 days of rehabilitative activity, after he pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed object midway. through a new trial.
