Ghostly last words of father who is stabbed in the neck by yob with broken bottle | British news

A violent boy who threatened to ‘ju-jitsu’ clubgoers before stabbing a famous boxing coach to death overnight has been jailed for life.

Ross Hamilton had ‘spoiled himself for a fight’ and armed himself with a broken bottle before stabbing it into 31-year-old Reece Newcombe’s neck.

The Old Bailey heard Mr Newcombe, a friend of ex-footballer and TV pundit Ian Wright, hold his neck and say: ‘I’m dead – he’s killed me’ before collapsing in a pool of blood.

Hamilton, 34, from Isleworth, west London, was found guilty of murder and today received a life sentence with a minimum term of 19 years.

Judge Anthony Leonard KC said that in a ‘brief moment’ he had ’caused a family to lose a cherished member and his partner and children to lose his loving support’.

The court heard Newcombe’s partner Alicia Smith, who was in the early stages of pregnancy, was rushed to hospital.

Judge Leonard said: ‘Not only has she had to deal with her own grief, but she has had to do so during her pregnancy and the birth of their second daughter, who will never know her father.’

The judge said Hamilton had a ‘pattern of violent offending’ with three previous convictions for assaulting girlfriends and a taxi driver.

The fatal attack took place on Richmond Bridge in south-west London in the early hours of November 26, 2022.

Prosecutor Louis Mably KC had said the fight was fueled by “intoxicated aggression” and that Hamilton’s decision to arm himself “changed everything”.

Previously, both Hamilton and Mr Newcombe had watched England play the US in a World Cup match shown in a fan zone at Richmond Park.

Mr Newcombe went to Viva nightclub in Richmond where he got drunk and had a “good time”, jurors were told.

Mr Mably said Hamilton, described as a bald man, had also gone to the club where he began behaving ‘aggressively and unpredictably’.

The prosecutor said: ‘He appeared to be goading people, performing karate kicks on the dance floor, putting his arm around people and behaving aggressively towards them.’

He continued to act aggressively after the club closed and people poured out.

Mr Mably said: ‘He started confronting people and inciting them to fight him in an alley.

‘He said in his words, “I will make you the goddamn jijitsu”. In short, the bald man was up for a fight.”

Shortly before 4am, Newcombe made the “tragic decision” to attack Hamilton, who had already armed himself with a piece of broken glass.

After being stabbed in the neck, Mr Newcombe’s friends rushed to help him.

Hamilton left the scene but later turned himself in to police, jurors were told.

Jurors were told Hamilton had a violent streak that first led to a conviction in 2014 for punching a taxi driver in the side of the head in succession over a fare.

In 2018, he was warned for punching a girlfriend in the face, causing her to fall to the ground.

Two years later he was convicted in Spain for hitting another partner on the shoulder with a bottle, kicking her in the stomach and pushing her to the ground.

Unemployed Hamilton had denied killing Mr Newcombe, claiming he had acted in self-defence.

The court was told Hamilton had had a ‘difficult and troubled childhood’ and had expressed remorse in a letter to the judge before he was sentenced.

Hamilton was also jailed for four months after being found guilty of assault by beating another man. This sentence runs concurrently with life imprisonment.

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