The bitter love triangle that ended in tragedy
VICTIM WAS MURDERED BY RIVAL – THEN HIS PARTNER TRIED TO HELP BRUTAL KILLER
AS Alan Murphy lay on his couch, covered in blood, he told his brother he was ‘sorry.’ “That was his last breath,” his older sibling Kevin said.
“Alan just stopped, his eyes were open but there was nothing there.”
The unenviable, heartbreaking task of informing their mother of her son’s grave situation fell to him.
“He’s gone this time, he’s gone,” Kevin recalled telling her.
“There’s nothing bringing him back. She didn’t know what to say.”
It was clear Alan had been the victim of a brutal attack.
The motive for this horrific murder turned out to be one of the oldest in the book – love.
Alan, a father to a young daughter, had found himself embroiled in a bitter love triangle. He and William Doleman were both competing for the affections of Lisa Hough.
Convinced his girlfriend Hough was seeing her ex behind his back, Alan traded threats with Doleman in the hours before his death.
The pair agreed to a fight, a straightener, to resolve their differences.
Alan, 39, would be killed hours later, after being brutally set upon.
Doleman, 27, murdered Alan in the street.
He suffered eight stab wounds, after being subjected to a frenzied attack.
Rather than hang around and assist her boyfriend, Hough, 43, who watched on as Alan was stabbed, tried to help Doleman cover up the killing.
With a boyfriend murdered and an ex starting a life sentence for murder, Hough has now also been locked up herself after being found guilty of assisting an offender.
It was on the morning of February 18, on Moston’s Miners estate, where residents woke to crime scene investigators scouring Whitstable Road, near Alan’s home, for clues.
A few hours earlier, Alan had been able to stagger back to his home after being attacked by Doleman.
He and Doleman had been involved in an increasingly angry and jealousy-fuelled exchange that night.
Alan – Hough’s current partner – and Doleman, an ex-boyfriend, did not like each other.
But according to Doleman, he and Alan had never even met prior to their fateful encounter.
Doleman said he and Hough had been in an on-off relationship for three years.
“I never met Alan Murphy, Lisa told me they were just friends,” he said.
“I had no idea they were in a relationship at all.
“She did tell me they kissed once but it seemed to me she wasn’t interested.”
The first sign of trouble on that fatal night came at 3.13am.
“You want to be with your ex and not me?,” Alan said in a text to Doleman’s phone.
“Yes,” came the reply.
Whether Doleman or Hough sent the text is unclear, as she had been using his phone.
A sighting of Doleman’s dog brought about this text exchange.
Hough had been seen with Sparky the dog earlier that night.
To Alan, this was conclusive evidence that his girlfriend had been with her ex.
Angered at this discovery, he and two friends went to confront Hough, taking the short walk to her home on Blandford Drive.
There he found Doleman and Hough together.
A friend of Alan’s would later say Doleman had threatened to stab his love rival.
After that confrontation, a flurry of threatening text messages passed between the pair.
“Don’t tell me to f*** off, come round to my house now,” Alan texted Doleman at 3.51am.
“Come here, I f ****** dare you,” Doleman responded.
“I will punch your f ****** head in,” he said. “Meet me my house you d***, I don’t need a dog to protect me, piece of s***, come to mine,” Alan texted at 4.21am.
“Sweet I will come and you will see, d*** head,” Doleman replied.
Doleman called his friend, 26-year-old Ademola Efunnuga.
Five miles away, Efunnuga was in bed with his partner and their 10-week-old daughter, at a plush city centre apartment round the corner from the former Hacienda nightclub.
It was at 4.11am that he was woken by the phone call from Doleman.
Efunnuga said Doleman sounded drunk, and he could hear Hough in the background.
Shortly after, leaving behind his new-born baby and girlfriend in the
middle of the night, Efunnuga took a taxi to Moston.
He would later say he wanted to go and help Doleman stay out of trouble, believing he was arguing with Hough.
He arrived soon after, meeting with his friend.
Doleman called Alan at 4.30am. What was said between them is unclear, but the fight was on.
Their paths crossed near Alan’s home, and things quickly turned violent. Both men were armed.
Doleman said he stabbed Alan with some scissors, and said he was hit by Alan with a hammer.
Alan suffered eight stab wounds, the most serious being to his left arm.
It caused rapid and extensive blood loss, and proved fatal. He died shortly after 11am that day.
Hough watched the brutal attack unfold, walking around the corner as it unfolded. She fled with Doleman and Efunnuga.
Efunnuga was caught on CCTV in the middle of the brawl, but maintained he didn’t stab Alan and was trying to protect Doleman.
He was acquitted of murder and manslaughter during a trial.
The Murphy family were woken by a friend of Alan’s, who had knocked on the door. He told them Alan had been seriously hurt.
Alan’s mother woke up his brother Kevin, who had come across the grim scene at his home.
Alan had been able to stagger back to his home and lie on the couch, gravely injured.
As Alan lay dying, his girlfriend
The judge said Hough must have derived a “twisted pleasure from being the centre of both men’s attentions”
tried to help Doleman cover it up.
They went to Hough’s home where Doleman washed his blood covered hands.
She cleaned the walls of her home, after blood had got onto them and gave Efunnuga new clothes.
Doleman booked a taxi to Newton Heath using a false name, dumped his phone and went to bed.
After waking up a few hours later, he and Hough went to Tesco to buy new phones.
Doleman later handed himself in to police, as rumours circulated that Alan had died.
He would tell police he was acting in self-defence, a claim he maintained at his trial.
But a jury didn’t believe him and convicted him of murder.
On Friday he was jailed for life by Judge Anthony Cross QC, who told Doleman: “I’m satisfied you wanted to fight and wanted to inflict serious harm to Mr Murphy as a sign of your prowess.”
The murderer must serve at least 24 years behind bars before he can be considered for parole.
Efunnuga said he was the peacemaker, trying to pull the pair apart and diffuse the confrontation.
The jury found him not guilty of murder and manslaughter.
A murder weapon was not recovered by police, but the attack was captured on CCTV.
Hough didn’t give evidence at her trial.
She had earlier told police that the two men were in a ‘panic’ after the fight, while she admitted giving Efunnuga fresh trousers to wear.
Her lawyers claimed she hadn’t tried to impede the murder investigation, as she admitted what she’d done to police.
But the jury found her guilty of assisting an offender and she is now starting a three-and-a-half year stint behind bars.
Judge Cross QC said Hough must have derived a “twisted pleasure from being the centre of both men’s attention”.
While Alan’s brother will undoubtedly live with the horror of seeing his sibling as he lay dying, his family remember happier times.
“Alan had a heart of gold and would do anything for anyone,” they said after his death.
“He has left a lasting impression on everyone’s hearts who has met him.
“Alan was a loving son, brother, and father to his young daughter. He is gone but will never be forgotten.