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A father ‘stabbed a burglar to death in a brutal and ruthless killing after watching a gang raid his family home through his Ring doorbell’, a court has heard.
Karl Townsend, 32, and his half brother Jamie Cunningham, 23, armed themselves with knives after seeing the intruders outside his home in Halewood, Merseyside, in October last year.
He is understood to have shouted at the three men to leave his home, before stabbing Jordan Brophy, 31, to the face and head, the court was told.
Mr Brophy suffered stab wounds to the eye and a piece of broken blade was left embedded in his brain.
Prosecutors allege Townsend and Cunningham left the scene, but returned to the property, where the former stabbed Mr Brophy in the jugular vein, The Mirror reports.
Townsend and Cunningham are standing trial at Liverpool Crown Court charged with murder and possessing a bladed article.
Richard Pratt QC, prosecuting, told the court that the stabbing was not motivated by ‘fear or panic’, but it was a ‘brutal and ruthless killing’ of a ‘defenceless man’.
Jordan Brophy (pictured), 31, suffered stab wounds to the eye and a piece of broken blade was left embedded in his brain
Forensic officers and tents erected at the scene of the stabbing in Beechwood Road, Halewood, Liverpool, in October last year
The court heard that Townsend was at his parents’ property when he received an alert via his the doorbell camera that a burglary was taking place at his home.
Three men had broken into the home through a side door, while a fourth associate waiting in a nearby parked car, the court heard.
Townsend and Cunningham hurriedly drove to the scene in a Mercedes GLA at around 6.26pm, having ‘armed themselves with large knives’, the court heard.
The pair shouted at the burglars to leave the house, before an altercation is said to have taken place inside – not caught on any CCTV.
The court heard that Mr Brophy fled the scene complaining of an eye injury, having suffered two stab wounds to the face and head.
The prosecutor told jurors that burglary is a ‘despicable crime’, but that it did not ‘justify this level of severe violence’.
Townsend and Cunningham crashed into a wall shortly after leaving the property, the court has heard
Townsend and Cunningham subsequent drove away from the scene, but returned less than a minute later, when the former stabbed Mr Brophy in the neck.
A pathologist concluded that Mr Brophy would have died from the initial brain injury, but would have been killed ‘almost instantaneously’ from the stab wound to the neck.
The jury has been told that Townsend accepts he caused Mr Brophy’s death, while Cunningham is alleged to have ‘intentionally assisted and encouraged’ him.
The trial continues.
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