Two guilty of father-of-five murder

Michael Eccles, 43, died on January 26, a day after sustaining serious injuries in a brutal street attack near his home in Lichfield, Staffordshire.

A jury at Birmingham Crown Court took four hours to find guilty Carl Keatley, 20, of Greencroft, Lichfield, and a 16-year-old boy, who is also from Lichfield.

The boy can now be identified as Jordan Carroll after a court order was lifted.

His father, 55-year-old Edward Carroll, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice. The court was told that he tried to help his son "cover up" the crime by putting his blood-stained clothes in the washing machine and cleaning blood from his head.

During the two-week trial, jurors heard that Mr Eccles was walking home from a local Costcutter store, having purchased a bottle of wine and some milk, when he was set upon by Keatley and Carroll, who was 15 at the time.

It was a Sunday evening and the pair had spent the day drinking vodka in a local park. Both were drunk when they chased their victim and knocked him to the ground. The assault followed a "verbal exchange" as Mr Eccles left the store with his purchases and asked them to move on.

Gareth Evans QC, prosecuting, told the court that Mr Eccles, a factory worker and ardent Liverpool FC fan, was "punched and kicked and stamped upon" by the drunken pair.

He was left lying in the street with a burst eye socket, 10 broken ribs, a number of broken bones in his neck and massive facial injuries.

His head was "literally kicked in" after blows rained down on the front, back and both sides of his skull, Mr Evans said.