A court has convicted two men for killing a random stranger in a street fight last year which lasted just 20 seconds.
Prosecutors described how Jake Parkinson, 22, and Jak Fairclough, 29, both of Preston, Lancashire, bumped into Jack Jermy-Doyle on a night out in August 2022.
Parkinson and Fairclough spoke briefly with Jermy-Doyle before Parkinson punched him in the stomach, with Fairclough delivering a second blow that knocked him to the ground.
Jermy-Doyle then struck his head on the pavement, putting him into a coma from which he would die just two days later.
Standing trial at Preston Crown Court, Fairclough pleaded guilty to manslaughter in August 2023. Parkinson had denied the charge but was subsequently found guilty yesterday, with both men due to be sentenced at a later date.
Preston Crown Court heard how Jermy-Doyle had been drinking with his friend Robert Jones before encountering Parkinson and Fairclough on the corner of Harris Street and Birley Street in the small hours of August 12, 2022.
The defendants were said at trial to have also been out drinking with friends, and to have displayed aggressive behaviour at various pubs earlier in the night.
After the attack against Jermy-Doyle, both Parkinson and Fairclough are understood to have run off into the night shouting: ‘Who wants it?’
The prosecution also described a number of ‘frantic messages’ between Parkinson and a number of his friends after local press began to report on the injuries sustained by Jermy-Doyle.
One of Parkinson’s messages read ‘Going to jail me’, accompanied by a snoozing emoji face.
Another read: ‘See you at HMP Wymott.’
The texts also appeared to show Parkinson weighing the possibility of leaving town for Blackpool after the incident, before eventually deciding to hand himself in – something to which a member of one of his chats responded to by saying: ‘You’re a very stupid boy.’
He was arrested while drinking at a club roughly 24 hours after the assault had taken place.
During questioning, Parkinson is reported to have said he was ‘mortified’ by the extent of Jermy-Doyle’s injuries, telling police that he hadn’t meant to ‘cause him any harm.’
Katie Marsden, a senior crown prosecutor for CPS North West, said: ‘This was a senseless act of violence by Parkinson and Fairclough that had fatal consequences for Mr Jermy-Doyle.
‘Their actions in approaching him, assaulting him and leaving him for dead were despicable.
‘Far from being remorseful, Mr Fairclough could be heard shortly after fleeing the scene shouting ‘who wants it’ and ‘who’s next’.
‘This case is a further reminder that one punch can kill. My thoughts are very much with the family and friends of Mr Jermy-Doyle who bear his loss.’
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