Life sentence for killer of charity volunteer
THE brother of a murdered Maundy Relief volunteer has welcomed the “right verdict” after his killer was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Christopher Singleton, formerly of Derby Street, Accrington, was found guilty of the murder of Raich Alcock after a twoweek Preston Crown Court trial. He must now serve a minimum of 16 years behind bars.
After the sentence, Mr Alcock’s brother Andrew, from Great Harwood, said he was “a vulnerable person” and was thankful for the support of equally vulnerable people coming forward to ensure justice was done.
Andrew said: “No-one deserves what happened to him. There was not an aggressive bone in his body whatsoever. He always lived in this area.
“You don’t expect people to come forward and be so determined to get justice.”
Singleton, 37, launched a violent attack against the defenceless Mr Alcock at the victim’s flat on Arnold Street in Accrington. Mr Alcock passed away 10 days later on September 16 last year – his 52nd birthday - from serious head injuries.
Prosecutors said Singleton repeatedly hit Mr Alcock on the face with a ‘clenched fist’ and that he was ‘incapable of fighting back, incapable of defending himself and incapable of putting up any resistance whatsoever’.
The court heard that Mr Alcock had been drinking in Accrington town centre with several ‘friends and acquaintances’ and that at one point Singleton ‘took offence’ to him being ‘loud’. The defendant was also left ‘angry’ after Mr Alcock was seen to push Singleton’s arm, the hear- ing was told. Prosecutor Gordon Cole QC said that Singleton followed Mr Alcock back home ‘with one aim in mind and that was to inflict violence’.
Singleton punched him once to the face, which caused him to bang his head on a wall and ‘knocking him to the ground’.
He then carried Mr Alcock into his kitchen and ‘dropped him onto the floor’, before mistaking ‘snoring’ noises for ‘Mr Alcock laughing at him’.
Singleton then stood over Mr Alcock, grabbed him by his top and punched him with a clenched fist so he ‘banged his head on the kitchen floor’. The jury was told that no ambulance was called until Mr Alcock’s friend Peter Cornish found him at 10.30 the next morning.
A post-mortem examination found Mr Alcock suffered a subdural haemorrhage, contusions to the brain, a large fracture to the base of his skull and fractures to bone plates above his eye sockets.
When Singleton was arrested and interviewed by police he claimed he had only punched Mr Alcock once on a car park and it was in ‘self-defence’.
‘No-one deserves what happened to him’