Friends ‘fist bumped’ after clubber was beaten to death
FRIENDS celebrated with fist bumps as if one had ‘just won an Olympic medal’ after a nightclub attack that left a young man dead, a court heard.
Anthony Condron, 29, was punched twice by Paul Byrne and died in front of his girlfriend Jemma Owens, 25.
Prosecutors said he was the victim of a ‘senseless’ attack in which Byrne’s friends, Jamie Addison and Joseph Booth, were also caught up.
When Byrne felled Mr Condron with two heavy blows to the jaw and neck, causing a traumatic brain injury, Booth simultaneously hit Mr Condron’s friend, Barry Goffett.
CCTV footage showed Byrne punching Mr Condron, who had come from a meal out with his girlfriend, before aiming a kick at Mr Goffett as he lay on the floor, having been struck by Booth.
Cameras outside the Maya venue in Liverpool city centre then showed Byrne re-enacting his punch and kick on the way to another club with his friends. There, Byrne again mimicked punches and kicks, as his friends were shown laughing, ‘fist-bumping’ and Booth hugging him.
Shocking text messages over the course of the next few hours show how their callous euphoria was replaced by the cold reality of what had happened.
At 1.27am, Booth texted an unidentified person: ‘ Liam hahahaha I got flopped after dropping some kid.’ After Byrne texted Booth at 11.15am to tell him ‘One of the lads has died’, Booth posted on WhatsApp that the night had been ‘carnage’ and quipped about ‘a glass jaw like Amir Khan’.
Byrne, 23, admitted manslaughter after the incident in February as well as causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Goffett, who fell and broke his ankle, but Addison and Booth denied both charges.
During their trial, John McDermott, QC, prosecuting, said they were celebrating and Byrne was ‘feted by them like he had just won an Olympic medal’. Jurors this week acquitted Addison and Booth – both 23 – of manslaughter.
Addison was cleared of grievous bodily harm against Mr Condron’s friend, but Booth – who argued self-defence claiming Mr Goffett had made as if to hit him – was convicted by a majority of 10-2. At Liverpool Crown Court Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, condemned Booth’s attitude of ‘ triumphalism, when you knew what you had done and you knew what Mr Byrne had done’.
He added: ‘[Mr Goffett] had done nothing at all to justify what you did. Your attack upon him, confined though it may have been to one heavy punch, was wholly unprovoked.’
He jailed Booth, of Aigburth, Liverpool, for 16 months, meaning he will be released in around two months, due to the time he has served on remand. Judge Goldstone also ordered him to pay £1,000 in compensation to Mr Goffett.
Byrne will be sentenced next month.
During the trial, Mr McDermott suggested Booth was a ‘mischief-maker’ who sparked the incident. Mr Goffett’s broken ankle was repaired during surgery, when he had a plate and screws fixed, but he was left unable to drive.
Booth told the jury he regretted laughing afterwards when he had not realised the serious consequences.
Christopher Stables, defending Booth, said his client did not rely on showing remorse in mitigation. Judge Goldstone retorted: ‘There is no remorse and never has been.’
Miss Owens described Mr Condron as being ‘irreplaceably special’. She told the jury they had enjoyed a ‘ lovely’ meal at a Wirral restaurant before heading to Liverpool city centre. After the tragedy, she said: ‘I’ll never be able to put into words how terrifying and empty the prospect of a life without Anthony now is.’
‘There is no remorse’