Ian Kirwan Murder: Teenager Found Guilty Of Redditch Asda Stabbing
Ian Kirwan, 53, was stabbed to death outside an Asda supermarket in Redditch last year. Today, a 15-year-old boy has been convicted of murdering the innocent man who was simply trying to use the supermarket toilets.
Mr Kirwan challenged the youth, who was 14 years old at the time of the attack, for messing around in the supermarket toilets on 8 March last year. The boy responded by stabbing the victim in the heart outside the store.
The teenage killer, from Birmingham, had travelled to Redditch on the train with a group of friends before subjecting Mr Kirwan to a brutal attack near the entrance of the Asda store.
Two boys, one aged 14, and the other 16, were cleared of murdering Mr Kirwan but were found guilty of violent disorder, while a fifth, 16, was cleared on all counts.
The jury was told how the killer teen was part of a masked gang that "terrorised" people around Redditch.
None of the teenagers can be identified due to legal stipulations surrounding their ages.
They are due to be sentenced on February 15.
Mr Kirwan, an artificial intelligence engineer at Jaguar Land Rover in Coventry, who had simply gone to Redditch to buy a lightswitch from B&Q and used the toilets at Asda, died from a stab wound to the heart.
Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court were told how the victim was an "unfortunate member of the public in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Judge Mr Justice Fraser told the 15-year-old killer: "I know that your counsel will have explained this to you already - you are going to be sentenced to the youth equivalent of a life sentence.
"But I am not going to pass that sentence now because I have to fix the minimum term. I am going to do that on the 15th of February."
The boy appeared via a video link and showed little emotion as the jury returned its guilty verdict.
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