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The boyfriend of a Hollyoaks actress was found guilty this afternoon of murdering her in a frenzied attack.
Ricardo Morrison, 22, used a six-inch kitchen knife to stab Amy Leigh Barnes, 19, nine times, leaving her in a pool of blood at the house they shared in Farnworth near Bolton. He stabbed her with such force that her liver was perforated.
Miss Barnes, who had modelled for Playboy and Cosmopolitan, made a 999 call saying she had been stabbed by “my boyfriend”. She was found by her father. Morrison pleaded not guilty to murder and told the jury he loved Miss Barnes and they were engaged. But she told friends she had been subjected to repeated attacks from her boyfriend.
A jury convicted Morrison, an amateur football coach, following an 11-day trial at Manchester crown court and he faces a life sentence. What the jury were not told was that Morrison has previous convictions for violent assaults on an ex-girlfriend and faces charges for attacking five women in a club.
The daughter of an artist, Miss Barnes was educated at £1,555-a-term Lord's Independent School in Bolton. She knew many footballers including Phil Jagielka of Everton and went out with Blackburn Rovers striker Benni McCarthy.
Reader views (3)
Knife and gun crime, and therefore most murders, will cease almost instantly, once you bring back the death sentence.
To safe-guard any innocents that may be convicted on flimsy evidence, can be solved by making the execution date one year from conviction of any capital offence; this will allow time for all the facts to be challenged on appeal in that year etc.
Killers today know they will not be killed themselves, and they will be freed one day.
It’s a win-win situation for killers in the UK today; and a lose-lose situation for all the victims and their families.
- Mickinlondon, london., 29/07/2009 03:34
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What a vile piece of rubbish this man is - I hope he gets the long sentence he certainly deserves. As for his mother, it beggars belief that despite her being a policewoman and allowing him to wash his bloodstained clothes, she was cleared of assisting an offender. One can only hope that she is investigated by her police force - at the very least she's incompetent at her job.
- C.Nichol, London, 28/07/2009 22:31
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It is just a crying shame this girl had to go this way. God bless her.
- Geek Freak, Paris, Texas, 28/07/2009 21:39
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