‘senseless’ | 

Dad of Limerick man stabbed to death in Manchester tells of ‘abject hatred’ for killer

“Thomas was killed so senselessly. I wish I could have protected him. I constantly think ‘Did he suffer? Did he think about his family?’”

Today at 08:03

The heartbroken father of Limerick man Thomas Murphy (42), who was stabbed death by his housemate in Manchester last year, has said they have nothing but “abject hatred” for his killer.

After Stephen Owusu (23) was handed an indefinite hospital order for the horrific killing by a court yesterday, Mr Murphy’s dad, Joe, said telling his family of his son’s death was the “worst moment of my life”.

In a statement read by prosecutor Rob Hall, Joe Murphy said: “Thomas was a lovely person. Thomas had a great sense of humour.

“Thomas took every opportunity to tell people how proud he was of them, especially his daughters,” he said.

“Thomas was killed so senselessly. I wish I could have protected him. I constantly think ‘Did he suffer? Did he think about his family?’

“The waves of sadness come over us when something reminds us of him. A song, an old message, a photo. I wake every night at 4am, the same time when the police told us what had happened.”

He added that the family was left “angry” and traumatised by his death and had nothing but “abject hatred” for Owusu.

“Thomas is not here, albeit he is always in our hearts,” Joe added. “Rose (Mr Murphy’s mum) says many times that he will never walk through our front door again. We are left only with our memories and a picture of Thomas hanging on our wall,” he added.

Thomas Murphy’s two teenage daughters told of the moment the police informed them their dad had died.

“I can remember returning home on Sunday afternoon after seeing my friends, to see the policeman waiting at the top of our road – stood outside our house,” his older daughter said.

“We knew straight away, we knew it was about dad. We could tell by the look on his face.

“They came into the house and we went upstairs whilst the police spoke to my mum. They then called us downstairs and told us our dad had been murdered.

“It didn’t make sense, our dad wasn’t a violent or evil person. We cried and cuddled our mum. My dad was an amazing person, the life and soul of the party and nobody ever had a bad word about him.”

Mr Murphy’s youngest daughter wept as she spoke of her dad’s funeral in Ireland.

“We travelled to Ireland, hoping to see him for one last time to say goodbye. I was heartbroken when they told us the coffin would not be open because his face was unrecognisable,” she sobbed.

“My dad always wanted a silver bracelet with a heart charm, so we brought him one so it could be with him in the coffin. The amount of people that came showed how much they loved him.”

As they went to his grave to lay him to rest, both daughters threw flowers onto his coffin so “he could have a piece of us with him”.

Stephen Owusu had stabbed Mr Murphy repeatedly with a 20cm knife before leaving him to die last September, after mistakenly believing Mr Murphy had broken his plate and left a piece of it under the sofa to ‘slight him’.

They had been housemates at a house on Beverly Road, Fallowfield, for just two months before he attacked the dad-of-two and left him with 34 stab wounds.

Owusu had issues with his mental health, and was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

He was handed an indefinite hospital order after admitting an offence of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Manchester Crown Court heard that following the attack, Owusu left Mr Murphy alone before washing the blood from his hands and knife.

He then went to his bedroom and when the police later arrested him, he told them: “He picked a fight and he lost.”

Owusu, of Beverly Road, was handed a section 37 hospital order with section 41 restrictions. Sentencing him, Judge John Potter told him: “Your actions extinguished a beacon of light.”