A Chelsea fan who killed a man after a row flared
A Chelsea fan who killed a man after a row flared up during the film Grease was jailed for five years today.
(Fri)
Justin Conrad, 35, struck Michael Clark, 56, in the throat after disturbing the victim’s enjoyment of the John Travolta classic with chants of ‘Chelsea, Chelsea’.
Mr Clark had refused hospital treatment after the incident on November 17 last year.
He was found slumped in a toilet 33 hours after the assault, the Old Bailey heard.
Conrad was cleared of murder but convicted by a jury of manslaughter following a five day trial.
He did not give evidence during the trial, but he denied assaulting Mr Clark at the hostel where they lived during interviews with police.
The incident had occurred after Conrad, a heavy drinker, went into one of the hostel’s five television rooms.
As the victim tried to watch Grease, he shouted: ‘Chelsea, Chelsea,’ and threw grapes and peanuts.
The two men argued after Mr Clark told Conrad to be quiet and he then settled down.
But as the film finished, Conrad attacked Mr Clark, punching him in the throat in an attack that left him shaking and unable to speak.
Although he was taken to hospital, Mr Clark refused to give a police statement or receive any treatment and left without seeing a doctor.
Early in the morning of November 19, Mr Clark was found slumped on the floor of the hostel’s toilets and was later confirmed dead.
A post mortem examination found that death had been due to the delayed effects of a fracture to the larynx.
Conrad, of Arlington Road, Camden, had denied murdering Mr Clark on November 19, 2002.
Passing sentence Judge Christopher Moss, QC, told him: ‘He offered you no violence and your response to his request for quiet was to inflict violence on him of a totally gratuitous nature.
‘He was considerably your senior and you attacked him punching him in the throat with a can containing a full can of beer with such force you fractured his voice box causing an injury which led to his death.
‘This offence is so serious that only a prison sentence can be justified.
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ends
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