A popular and much-loved dad and granddad who died 10 years after being attacked and left unconscious in the street was unlawfully killed, a coroner has ruled.
Ashley McGurk, then 32, was set upon at a shopping centre in north Manchester as he walked home from a night out in the early hours of Christmas Day in 2011, in what police believe was a violent robbery.
Ashley, also sometimes known as Ashley Thomas, was left with 'catastrophic' injuries including a 'devastating' brain injury from which it was initially feared he would not survive. He did, however, he never returned home and spent the next 10 years in a number of different care homes needing round-the-clock care.
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He died in hospital in January last year aged 41 after being taken unwell. He was found to have developed pneumonia which was recorded as the immediate cause of his death. However, a pathologist ruled the "underlying cause" was the injuries he sustained in the assault.
An inquest into his death heard one person was charged following the initial investigation into the attack but that the trial collapsed on the day it was due to begin.
And despite renewed attempts from officers following his death – with the probe now treated as a potential manslaughter or murder enquiry - those responsible are still at large and have not been brought to justice.
A coroner today urged anyone who had been sitting on information for the past decade which could help detectives to "find the courage" to "do the right thing" and come forward.
Giving evidence at the inquest at Rochdale Coroner's Court on Tuesday, Ashley's mum Jackie Wexler paid tribute to him saying: "He was funny. We used to have some laughs. He was like my mate more than anything."
She said Ashley, who has a daughter and now a grandson, and who worked at a juice factory before the attack was "such a character."
"He was just Ash," she said. "Everyone knew him. He was very, very popular".
She went on to say that he "had no enemies."
Describing the events of Christmas Eve, 2011, Jackie explained that her son came home after work to get changed before he headed out in a taxi with a friend for an evening at Lightbowne Social Club in Moston where his pal was a member.
"He was in a good mood, but he always was" she said.
At around 2:20am in the early hours of Christmas Day she got a phone call from a nurse at North Manchester General Hospital to say he was in hospital and raced to be with him. He had suffered numerous facial fractures alongside the trauma to his brain.
After a long period in hospital he was moved to a care home and would spend the next 10 years in several different homes, despite his mum Ms Wexler saying she "fought to get him home."
"He had a horrible 10 years in those care homes" she said. "They made his life a misery."
Ashley died "peacefully" with his family at his side on January 8, 2021 the day after being brought into hospital when he was feeling unwell.
Detective Inspector Patrick Connell, from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) who took over the investigation following Ashley's death, gave an extremely detailed breakdown of enquiries made both immediately after the attack and following his tragic death.
DI Connell said initial enquiries found that during the night at the social club the "mood was good" and Ashley, believed to have drunk between eight and ten pints and some shots of Sambucca, had been on the stage singing and "in high spirits."
Ashley, from the Harpurhey area, had arranged to get a taxi home with some others at the venue but at around 1am his friend went out for a cigarette, came back inside and found he had left. The friend assumed Ashley had decided to walk home rather than get a cab.
But, shortly after this CCTV footage shows that at 1:47am "two males are seen to approach him" outside the Card Factory shop on the North City Shopping Centre in Harpurhey "and it's at that point he's assaulted", DI Connell said.
He said Ashley "receives a blow, falls to the floor where he's punched and kicked again".
The offenders "look like they are going through his pockets" before they run off, with the whole incident lasting around two minutes DI Connell added.
A short time after being attacked Ashley was discovered on the floor by a man walking his dog who called paramedics, who in turn alerted the police. He was rushed to hospital and given the nature of his injuries a pathologist was called to assess his state as it was feared he may not survive.
The inquest was told Ashley had been given £300 pounds in wages the night he went out and taken £175 of it out with him. It is estimated based on what he spent that he should have had around £100 on him when he was attacked, but when he was found after the assault he had none with investigators concluding he had likely been robbed.
No direct witnesses to the assault were identified and the CCTV was of "poor quality" and "not sufficient for identifying individuals", DI Connell said.
However, the day following the assault police received a call from an anonymous woman, referred to in the inquest as Witness A, who said she knew who was responsible and that they were three people involved between the ages of 15 and 17. She also provided their names.
She said she had heard them commenting about it in newsagents with one alleged to have said: "Did you see the way I stamped on his head?". Another is said to have replied: "Well we didn't kill him."
All three were arrested and interviewed with their parents or guardians also spoken to. The mother of one told officers all three had been at her house and left around 1:40am and that she didn't see them again until 3:30am.
However, when interviewed, one of the males - referred to as Suspect 1 - despite admitting being in the area, denied any involvement whilst the other two, Suspects 2 and 3, gave no comment.
Suspect 1 lived at a children's home in the area and a staff member said he was out from 10:55pm on Christmas Eve until 2am on Christmas Day, and that when he returned he was seen brushing his trainers with a toothbrush.
When he was arrested a tracksuit top seeming to match the appearance of one worn by one of the attackers in the CCTV was found and was wet suggesting it may have been washed. Nothing was found when it was forensically analysed.
Suspect 1 was charged with Section 18 assault. No further action was taken against Suspects 2 and 3 due to what the CPS deemed to be "insufficient evidence".
When the case against Suspect 1 went to court in November 2012, the prosecution offered no evidence on the day the trial was due to begin, and the case was discharged, "mainly due to difficulties getting Witness A to give evidence", the inquest heard.
Following this, the case was "discontinued". And, in February 2016 a number of physical exhibits including the CCTV was disposed of with, in several cases, no rationale being given, something the coroner described as being "not good enough".
Giving evidence Det Spt Christopher Bridges said changes had now been made to national and force policies meaning it wouldn't happen again.
Following Ashley's death, the investigation was re-opened and the three suspects, who the coroner said she was not naming so as to not prejudice any potential future legal proceedings, were interviewed again. Suspect 1 was difficult to track down and Suspects 2 and 3 were both serving sentences at prisons elsewhere in the country and were brought to GMP's Headquarters to be questioned, the inquest was told.
However, all three gave no comment. DI Connell said as the CCTV showed only two offenders, one of the three suspects was "potentially a witness" with the coroner saying if they provided information to the police it could be "crucial." Witness A was also spoken to again but again told officers she would be unwilling to give evidence at court.
Home Office pathologist Dr Philip Lumb gave Ashley's cause of death as 1A) pneumonia and 1B) Head injury, saying the injuries sustained in the assault were consistent with "the use of feet or weapons" and were the "underlying cause
Senior Coroner for Manchester North Joanne Kearsley said: "Having heard all the evidence on the balance of probabilities, Ash, in my view, was the victim of a violent and unprovoked attack on on December 25, 2011. You have heard from GMP what the CCTV shows, that he was potentially the victim of a robbery.
"There is no doubt he was violently attacked with a blow to his head and whilst he was on the floor he was repeatedly assaulted. That has caused the devastating brain injury. Despite the police investigation in 2011 and subsequently, no one has been prosecuted through a trial for causing these injuries.
"There is no suggestion from the pathologist he had any defensive injuries and no suggestion from anyone that he provoked the attack. CCTV doesn't seem to indicate any form of argument.
"Whilst I am not a criminal court, that was an unlawful act that was carried out which has ultimately led to his death. We know his cause of death was a chest infection but for all the reasons that have been outlined, an individual with these injuries would have been vulnerable to a chest infection. I have no doubts Ash's death was the direct result of the assault on December 25, 2011.
"In my view, there's only one conclusion I am going to record, and I can record, and that is one of unlawful killing."
Before the coroner retired to consider her conclusion Ashley's mother Jackie said: "I have come in here, and I'll leave the same way. I don't know what happened that night, and I still don't know."
After giving her conclusion, Ms Kearsley told Ms Wexler: "I don't know if that will be any form of comfort, that you have that formal finding by a court.
"Probably not, as I suspect what you want is someone, perhaps, in particular, these three suspects, when we know from CCTV there can only have been two, to have some courage to come forward and speak to the police and provide them with any information they have. I would hope anyone who may have some information could find it in themselves to do the right thing and speak to the police."
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