A man who hit a golf greenkeeper in the head with a horseshoe after arguing over loud music from a boombox speaker on a train has been found guilty of murder.
Kirkpatrick Virgo hit Thomas Parker, 24, with the item after the pair had become involved in an 'altercation' on the train. The 42-year-old, from Slough, admitted manslaughter and carrying an offensive weapon, but denied murder.
The jury returned a guilty verdict on Wednesday (March 29) after deliberating for three hours and 49 minutes. The row began when Mr Parker’s brother Craig Parker, 27, told one of Virgo’s friends to turn the music down on the train at about 11pm last July 30.
READ MORE: Gran, 71, mistook home for her B&B - it cost her her life
The two groups shouted at each other before the altercation was ended by off-duty police officers. Virgo then followed the Parker brothers when the train arrived at Reading station.
During his evidence, Craig Parker told how he went to be sick behind a pillar as soon as the train arrived at Reading Station. He said he felt ill from a McDonald’s milkshake he had consumed on the train.
“Once I vomited I felt Tom looking over me, making sure I was all right,” he said. “Then it happened, so quickly, Tom was on the floor in front of me.”
The court heard that Virgo had followed the group, removing a heavy metallic horseshoe from his rucksack, which he then used to hit Thomas Parker in the head. Craig Parker told the court that he pursued Virgo through the station as he did not want to let him get away.
“I was in a bear hug, grappling, just holding (him), I did not want to let him go,” he said. After Virgo was detained, Mr Parker heard someone tell him that he needed to go back to his brother.
“I heard someone say ‘you best come down now’,” he said. Mr Parker found his brother surrounded by paramedics. Despite the efforts of emergency services, Thomas Parker was pronounced dead at 12.40am.
The court was told that Mr Parker died as a result of a subarachnoid haemorrhage after he was hit, meaning fragile blood vessels near his brain had burst and he had gone into cardiac arrest.
Consultant forensic pathologist Robert Chapman, who performed the post-mortem examination, told the court: “One to 2% of cases I deal with have this sort of injury. I would expect to see this type of injury about once a year or slightly less than that.”
Virgo will be sentenced on Friday, March 31.
READ NEXT:
