A jury acquitted Karl Townsend, 32, of murdering Jordan Brophy, 31, outside his home in Halewood, Merseyside, on October 29 last year, but found him guilty of manslaughter. The court heard that Mr Brophy and three others targeted Townsend’s home while he, his partner and child were out, with the intention of carrying out a ‘smash and grab’ burglary to steal a stash of controlled drugs . The burglars arrived at the property on Beechwood Avenue in a convoy of vehicles and had a getaway driver outside, jurors were told. Their arrival was caught on camera via a Ring doorbell app and Townsend returned to his home holding a large kitchen knife, along with his younger half-brother Jamie Cunningham, who also had a knife. Townsend repeatedly stabbed Mr Brophy in the head, face and arms inside the property before stabbing him again in the neck on the street outside, the court heard. Brophy, who was fatally stabbed while burglarizing Townsend’s home (PA) The 32-year-old was jailed for 19 years at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday. A sob could be heard from the public gallery as Judge Andrew Menary QC described injuries to Mr Brophy. “At any level, the unlawful force you used was truly shocking,” he said. “Jordan Brophy was no angel, he had a number of previous convictions and was under investigation for other matters at the time. “Whatever he did that night, he obviously didn’t deserve to die the way he did.” In a statement read to the court, Mr Brophy’s mother Lisa Ward said: “Jordan was by no means perfect and innocent, but no one ever had the right to take him away from me.” She said Mr Brophy had taken the “wrong path in life” after losing his job at Jaguar Land Rover, where he had worked with her, and had mental health problems. He said after waiting more than two years for a mental health referral, he had an appointment with a psychiatrist on November 4, but died before he could attend. Anesta Weekes QC, defending, said the incident began with the “unlawful trespassing” of Townsend’s home by three men. He said: “His case was that he wanted them gone. What he never expected was to carry his own knife to use on someone else, that those in the house might be carrying weapons.” Members of Mr Brophy’s family gasped as Ms Weekes said there may not have been defensive injuries to Mr Townsend because he was “better at standing up for himself”. But Judge Menary said he found Brophy was not armed with a weapon when he was attacked by Townsend. He said: “He didn’t expect a confrontation.” About 10 members of Mr Brophy’s family sat in the public gallery for the hearing and cheered when the sentence was announced. Mr Townsend shrugged his shoulders at his family members as he left the dock. He was given a concurrent two-year prison term for possession of a bladed article. Cunningham, 23, of Penmann Crescent, Halewood, who was acquitted of murder and manslaughter at a previous trial, was given a two-year supervised community sentence, with 10 days of rehabilitation activity, after pleading guilty to possessing an object. through retrial.
