"...difficult and troubling..."

A man with a false leg and a boy of 16 murdered a father of five just yards from his front door by beating him so severely that he suffered massive facial injuries and 10 cracked ribs.

*sigh*

The pair were found guilty at Birmingham Crown Court today after a trial which the judge described as 'difficult and troubling'.

No further details on why he found it so, but then, sentence was deferred until Friday. Probably for the usual 'social report'...

During the two-week trial, Gareth Evans QC, prosecuting, told the court that Mr Eccles was 'punched and kicked and stamped upon' by the drunken pair after a 'verbal exhange' in a Costcutter store in Lichfield, Staffordshire.

He was left lying in the street with a burst eye socket, 10 broken ribs, a number of broken bones in his neck and massive facial injuries.

All for a 'verbal exchange'...?

Both denied murder and Keatley claimed he could not have kicked or stamped on the victim because he has a prosthetic leg.

He told jurors the false limb, fitted above the knee of his right leg in January 2007, prevented him from being able to exert any force with his feet.

He said: 'I am not able to use my feet in a violent way. There isn't enough force in that leg to cause the damage that was caused to Mr Eccles.'

But when confronted with evidence that footprints matching the soles of his trainers were found on the back and front of the Liverpool FC shirt Mr Eccles had been wearing when he was attacked, Keatley said he had 'tripped over'.

Carroll, who was 15 at the time of the attack told the court he could remember nothing of the attack because he was so drunk.

I wonder if he was getting disability allowance?