A cocaine fuelled killer brutally murdered a 'one-of-a-kind' dad in a horrific axe attack.
Kieran Oldham, 37, bludgeoned Liam Richardson more than a dozen times with the weapon during the ferocious killing in Rochdale.
Oldham faces a life sentence after being convicted of murdering the 21-year-old.
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Liam had been at Oldham's house when he launched the murderous attack. Prosecutors said that the pair knew each other but Oldham 'bullied and used' Liam.
A voicemail recording, apparently captured after Oldham accidentally called someone, provided an insight into what happened in the house in the early hours of October 3 last year.
"You took everything from me," Oldham told Liam, in a voicemail recorded at 12.20am.
"I took nothing from you, you're just switching up on me," Liam replied. He continued: "I'm not ruining anything, you're just switching up on me. I just want to go home. Can I just get my s*** and go?"
Police were called after neighbours heard loud noises from the property on Industry Road. Officers arrived at about 12.45am and discovered Liam's body.
He had suffered 'catastrophic' injuries to his head and neck. Oldham had fled the scene.
At about 4am, he knocked on the front door of two friends of his, who lived on nearby Norton Road.
Oldham went on a bizarre rant and told the couple that he'd put a 'hex' on them. They asked Oldham to leave but he refused, and at one point he blocked the door to stop them from leaving.
He only left the property about two hours after arriving. Then, at 6.30am, he was seen smashing the windows of a car on Gale Street.
A member of the public 'confronted and detained' Oldham until the police arrived and arrested him on suspicion of murder.
Oldham pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility, claiming that he was suffering from schizophrenia which affected his mental capacity.
But a prosecution psychiatrist said that Oldham's apparent state of psychosis at the time of the murder was cocaine induced, and that there was no evidence of him suffering from schizophrenia.
Prosecutors maintained he was guilty of murder, and after just over three hours of deliberations, a jury agreed.
Oldham previously pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, in relation to the incident at the house on Norton Road, as well as affray in relation to the smashing of car windows.
At the time of his death, Liam's friends paid tribute to him.
One friend said: "He was a lovely, kind and generous person, really one-of-a-kind. He was so funny, yet infuriatingly annoying but that is why we loved him."
"He had become such a good and unique young man who cared for the ones he loved, he loved his son more than anything. Our pain and loss is indescribable", he added.
Another described Liam as a 'genuinely decent and nice lad'.
Oldham will be sentenced tomorrow, March 24, at Minshull Street Crown Court.
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