Guilty verdicts for pair convicted of murdering Ryan Kirkpatrick in Carlisle
Two men have been found guilty of the murder of Ryan Kirkpatrick in Carlisle last year.
Carlisle Crown Court heard Kane Hull, 29, and Liam Porter, 33, acted together in a plan to stab 24-year-old Mr Kirkpatrick at Carlyle's Court in the city centre.
After the killing, the pair fled first to southern Scotland and then on to the Republic of Ireland where they were arrested by Irish Police 10 days later.
On the day of the murder Hull and Porter had spent the afternoon together at the Royal Scot pub in the Morton area of the city, before travelling to Carlyle’s Court.
Mr Kirkpatrick was out with friends in Carlyle's Court following a Christening celebration earlier in the day.
Porter was seen on CCTV entering Carlyle’s Court. The cameras then captured Hull entering a short time later.
He attempted to assault Mr Kirkpatrick with a glass, then left the scene along with Porter.
The court heard there had been “bad blood” between Hull and Mr Kirkpatrick.
Hull had been jailed in 2018 for affray and possessing an offensive weapon after Mr Kirkpatrick was chased into a Carlisle betting shop and attacked.
As Hull and Porter left Carlyle’s Court, a passer-by heard a man say: “That f***ing b***ard got me locked up last time.”
Fifteen minutes later, Hull and Porter returned — masked and in different clothes - and Hull stabbed Mr Kirkpatrick three times.
An off-duty nurse who was passing nearby Carlyle’s Court heard a commotion, and saw two men leaving.
She logged the time and the registration number of the Volvo used by the killers in the notes section of her phone.
Another woman, police and medical professionals battled to save Mr Kirkpatrick but he was pronounced dead at the scene at 9.22pm.
Hull and Porter then went on the run, changing phone numbers, checking into new addresses using fake names - including at a hotel at Alston where they stayed overnight - and taking delivery of stolen cars on false plates.
CCTV sightings captured the killers in Hawick and Langholm, and they travelled to Northern Ireland by ferry and then to the Republic of Ireland.
Ten days after the murder, Hull and Porter were arrested by Irish police at a rural retreat at Carracastle, County Mayo, where Hull was found hiding in a loft.
A shopping list scribbled on the back of a microwave oven manual featured, among other items, “hair dye, glasses, hat/wig, mask, munchies (Red Bull)”. They were extradited back to England.
Opening the case against Hull and Porter, prosecutor Tim Evans had said the killing “was at the hand of Hull” and that Porter was there “as a party to, supporting the plan to stab Mr Kirkpatrick”.
“They were, in other words, in it together,” Mr Evans told jurors.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for seven hours before finding Hull, latterly of Bower Street, and Porter, of Fulmar Place, both Carlisle, guilty of Mr Kirkpatrick’s murder with the verdicts announced on Monday 24 October.
The pair are due to be sentenced by trial judge, the Honourable Mr Justice Linden, on the morning of Tuesday 25 October, and face mandatory life prison sentences.
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