By Shaun Murphy-
A 22-year-old man has been found guilty of murdering the cousin of boxing heavyweight Tyson Fury.
Rico Burton,(pictured) who was 31, was fatally stabbed by Liam O’Pray during a bar brawl in Altrincham, Manchester last August.
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Liam O’Pray, 21, was convicted on Friday of fatally stabbing Burton, 31, during a brawl outside a bar in Altrincham in August last year.
He was also found guilty of wounding with intent by slashing and stabbing Harvey Reilly, 18, in the same incident during the early hours of the morning on 22 August.
The trial at Manchester crown court heard O’Pray used a seven-inch blade that almost completely severed a major artery in Burton’s neck leading to massive blood loss. Burton went into cardiac arrest and was declared dead in hospital at 4.35am.
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Jurors were shown CCTV footage of a fight between the defendant’s friends and Burton’s family, as well as friends at Goose Green, a courtyard of bars in Altrincham, Trafford.
A witness told the court that shortly after 3am “absolute chaos” broke out when O’Pray’s friend, Malachi Hewitt-Brown, was punched by Burton’s cousin Chasiah Burton.
Rico Burton then aimed a punch at Hewitt-Brown, before O’Pray stabbed the left side of his neck, the jury was told.
Reilly then began to attack the defendant, who was “indiscriminatingly waving the knife”, slashing him in the arm and the abdomen, before being punched and seemingly knocked out.
Reilly suffered a 14cm gaping wound to his chest wall, exposing his ribs, and a large wound to his left arm.
“All this happened within five to six seconds of Chasiah Burton punching Mr Hewitt-Brown. It was an extremely fast-moving incident,” said the prosecutor Michael Brady KC.
O’Pray had earlier been refused entry to a bar, and witnesses described his behaviour as “very erratic”.
“This needs to stop, ASAP. UK government needs to bring higher sentencing for knife crime, its a pandemic and you don’t know how bad it is until it’s one of your own!”
The jury, consisting of seven women and five men, reached their decision after three-and-a-half hours of consideration that followed a three-week trial.
Mr Burton’s relatives packed the public gallery and are said to have shouted, ‘Yes’, when O’Pray’s guilty verdict was delivered.
O’Pray was also found guilty of wounding with intent after slashing and stabbing Harvey Reilly, who was 17 at the time, in the same incident.
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