Man jailed for life after killing ‘hero’ who was breaking up fight outside club
Michael Riddiough-Allen was stabbed to death outside the Eclipse nightclub in April 2023.
A 25-year-old man who murdered a beloved local rugby player in a nightclub brawl in Cornwall has been jailed for life.
Michael Riddiough-Allen, 32, was stabbed to death outside the Eclipse nightclub in Bodmin in April 2023.
His killer, Jake Hill stabbed five people in around 20 seconds after a brawl erupted outside the nighclub with a serrated hunting knife that he had hidden in a nearby hedge.
Mr Riddiough-Allen, who was the fifth person to be stabbed, died at the scene after suffering a fatal wound to his stomach.
The jury heard how Allen, a rugby player had been out celebrating the end of the season with pals when the brawl broke out. He was unarmed and unknown to his attacker, and had intervened in an attempt to break up the fight.
Jake Hill, Tia Taylor and Chelsea Powell were arrested in connection with the attack, and have today been sentenced at Truro Crown Court.
Following days of deliberation, a jury sitting on the trial of the unanimously found Hill guilty of murder and guilty of four counts of wounding with intent.
He was found not guilty of another charge of wounding with intent and unlawful wounding.
As well as Mr Riddiough-Allen, Hill attacked Liam Phillips, Ryan Burger, Ryan Parsons, Rhiannon Tompsett and Stefan Williams.
They all received knife wounds in the brawl outside Eclipse.
Accomplice Tia Taylor, 22, who attacked Mr Riddiough-Allen as he lay injured on the ground, received a three-year prison sentence for manslaughter and perverting the course of justice.
Chelsea Powell, 23, was also jailed for 15 months for perverting the course of justice by lying to police following the incident.
Speaking to the court, Riddiough-Allen’s sister, Becky Dustan, described the void her brother’s death has left in the lives of those who knew and loved him.
She said: ‘The vision of [Michael] being beaten in his last moments is all we see when we close our eyes.’
Her statement went on to describe his death as ‘all encompassing’, adding ‘there isn’t a moment that goes by where we don’t think about him’.
She remarked about the ‘senseless’ and ‘avoidable’ death of her brother, saying: ‘Things will never be the same.’
Hill fled the area following the attack, and was later arrested at Taylor’s house. He was discovered after her toddler told police officers Hill was hiding in the loft of his home while his mother had lied to officers.
Fellow victim Liam Phillips needed keyhole surgery after being stabbed in the abdomen during the incident, and told the court he was unable to work for three weeks after the attack.
He has a visible scar which he’s often asked about, he said, bringing up the memories.
‘In terms of the emotional and physical impact the incident had on me, in the first few weeks I found it very hard to go out socialising,’ he told jurors. ‘I felt vulnerable and I was worried something like that night would happen again. I still think about the day in question.’
He said what happened that day will ‘always stay with [him]’ and will ‘never go away’
A second victim, Ryan Burger, was stabbed in the groin and operated on in a life-saving nine-hour surgery at Derriford Hospital.
He called his mother while bleeding out and told her he might not make it, and said had it not been for a bouncer putting a belt around his leg as a tourniquet he would have ‘bled out and died’.
‘After I’d been stabbed I thought I was dying,’ he wrote in his statement. ‘I’d said goodbye to my mum on the phone and there were times in the ambulance that I thought I was dying. It was a horrendous experience and incredibly traumatic.’
Mrs Justice Cutts, in sentencing, told Hill he has not shown a shred of remorse for his crimes, and detected no regret on his part for Mr Riddiough-Allen’s murder.
She repeated the family’s description of Mr Riddiough-Allen as a ‘gentle giant’, and told Hill he did not run from him but towards him in a bid to prevent him from harming others.
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