Two Leighton Buzzard men and a Pitstone man have been cleared of murdering a digital producer in Windsor – but a Luton man has been found guilty of the killing.
Lahin Miah, 26, of Windsor Road, Pitstone was looking for a fight when he and his friends ambushed Sean Noctor, 24, in a park as he made his way home from his sister’s 21st birthday party.
Jordan Lewis Doyle, 21, grabbed a knife to kill Mr Noctor as Miah and Benjamin Brooks, 21, attacked his friends.
One of Mr Noctor’s friends stripped to his underwear to try and staunch the bleeding with his clothes.
He was rushed to hospital after the attack, in Goswell Park in the early hours of Sunday, July 28, 2013, but later died from his injuries.
On Friday, Doyle, of Kimberley Close, Luton, was found guilty of murder after a trial at the Old Bailey.
Miah, and Brooks, of The Chilterns, Leighton Buzzard, were both cleared of the killing. The acquitted defendants wept uncontrollably in the dock as the verdicts were announced.
Brooks had already admitted violent disorder, and Miah and Doyle were also convicted of that charge.
Yesterday, Doyle was jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years, Miah was jailed for two years, and Brooks received a 14-month jail term.
Harry Turney, 20, of Orion Way, Leighton Buzzard, and George Hay, 26, of Jasper Avenue, Hanwell, west London, were both cleared of murder and violent disorder.
Mr Noctor was a former pupil of St Bernard’s Catholic Grammar School pupil in Langley, Berks, who was at the time of his death a digital producer for Windsor web design firm Brandwidth HQ.
Members of his family wept in court as John Price, QC, prosecuting, described how he was killed as he made his way home from his sister Fiona’s 21st birthday celebrations.
“It was the tragic misfortune of that group of young men that their paths should have crossed that in particular of the defendant Miah,” he said.
“On that night his behaviour was of a man spoiling for a fight. It didn’t appear much to matter to him with whom he picked one, it is as though he was seeking out violence for fun, as a sport.’
“Mr Noctor did nothing to provoke the attack, the court heard, but was ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’.
“He lost his life in the course of a violent incident, one that was not of his making,” said Mr Price.
“In the early hours of that morning in a park in Windsor he was stabbed and in front of six of his friends he bled to death. His friends tried all they could in an effort to save his life, one of them stripped down to his underwear so that his clothing might be used as tourniquets in an effort to try and staunch the flow of blood but it was to no avail.
“Jordan Doyle was the man who stabbed Sean, he used a knife to do so.”
Mr Noctor’s pal Charlie Boyle told the jury how he was punched in the face during the ‘manic’ brawl, and said it came totally out of the blue.
Of Miah, he said: “Crazy eyes was definitely looking for a fight.” When the fight broke out, Doyle ran to Turney’s car to retrieve the knife that he stabbed Mr Noctor with.
“Sean has been stabbed under the left armpit, the blade of the knife which killed him penetrated to a depth of 17cm,” said Mr Price.
“It almost completely severed a major blood vessel situated close to the armpit.”
After their arrest, the group started to turn on each other, with Doyle insisting he had seen Brooks deliver the fatal blow.