Macaulay Byrne's killer gets 18 years in prison as court hears he partied in nightclubs after pub stabbing

Bovic Mupolo, 21, who moved to Sheffield from Zambia as a child, stabbed Macaulay to death after a fight the killer alleged began when he overheard a racist remark in a pub.

Macaulay died after the stabbing in the Gypsy Queen in Beighton last Boxing Day, and Mupolo went on to visit other bars and nightclubs in Rotherham and Sheffield later on the same night.

A jury found Mupolo guilty of murder yesterday and he was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court today.

Sending Mupolo, of Fleury Rise, Gleadless, Judge Jeremy Richardson told him: “This case demonstrates the dangers of individuals carrying knives and then involving themselves in a fight. The temptation to use the knife is so great that it overwhelms the individual. The knife is then used to devastating and often fatal effect. That is what happened here.

“There can be no doubt, having heard statements from the deceased’s family that he was much loved and his family have been devastated by his death, and the circumstances of his death.”

During the course of the trial, prosecuting barrister, John Harrison KC, described how after inflicting the fatal wounds on Mr Byrne, callous Mupolo left him bleeding to death and continued partying, stopping off at venues including The Mason Arms, in Wickersley, Rotherham, and the Crystal Bar and Viper Rooms, on Carver Street, Sheffield.

Jurors, who returned a guilty verdict Thursday, November 24, were told that Mupolo and Mr Byrne had been involved in a fight at the pub that spilled into the car park. Coley suffered four stab wounds, with two of them eventually proving fatal. After staggering back into the pub after the attack, he bled out behind the bar before he was taken by ambulance to Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital where he tragically died a short time later.

Mupolo’s friend, Layton Morris, of Sidney Street, Rotherham, was accused of helping him escape, but he was found not guilty of assisting an offender.

Mr Morris stated that they had been subjected to racist threats so they had left the pub and he had not known there had been a stabbing.

Mupolo had claimed the ‘fight’ with Mr Byrne started after he had heard a group say some racial remarks and that someone had said under their breath, ‘what are these black b******s doing here?’.

But following Mupolo’s conviction for murder, Mr Byrne’s mother Michelle told The Star: “The worst trauma of all is having my son branded a racist and he was not a racist.

“He has never been a racist and half his friends are black. For them to pull that out of the bag is out of order. His niece and nephew are black and it is wrong,” she said.