BREAKING: Two jailed in UK for murdering man who tried to stop girl being assaulted 

The men have been jailed after a good Samaritan was stabbed and died after he came to the aid of teenage girl being assaulted in Sheffield.

A court in the UK has sentenced two men to jail on Thursday, May 4, after they were accused of murdering a 26-year-old man, who was died after he was stabbed.  

The man named Reece Radford was stabbed when he intervened after seeing a 17-year-old girl being assaulted in Sheffield city centre, on September 29, 2022. 

According to South Yorkshire Police, Radford died six days after he was stabbed, and a postmortem report revealed that his death was due to a “single stab wound to the chest.” 

The two men named Dereck Owusu, 40, of Strathmore Grove, Rotherham, and Louis James, 46, of Manor Lane, Sheffield were found guilty of murder on 5 April, following a three-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court. 

The mother of the victim in a statement at the court said that their family has been ’shattered’ by his death. 

She said, “It was not just my son who was killed that night, my family was killed, my heart is broken. Reece was the life and soul of this family; he would light a room up as soon as he came in. He wasn’t just my son he was my best friend, my soulmate, my everything. 

“It is killing me knowing I am never going to see his big brown eyes, never going to hear his laugh or see him grow into the best daddy ever. That has been taken away from us. 

“Our hearts will never heal from the loss of Reece; he was special and loved beyond life. We will all miss him forever.” 

The details of the trial, cited in a report by the South Yorkshire police state that, during the trial, “the court heard that Owusu and James were on Arundel Gate in Sheffield city centre just before 1 am when they bumped into a teenage girl they knew.” 

“They shared some alcohol and shortly after 2.20 am, a violent altercation occurred and Owusu punched the 17-year-old girl in the face.” 

The court was then informed that “Reece witnessed this assault and stepped in to help the teenager, punching Owusu in the face. A fight broke out between the defendants and Reece.” 

“The three ended up in the road, and Reece fell to the floor where he was subjected to a barrage of kicks from both men. Then the assault abruptly ended. Reece crossed the road and collapsed on the other side. He had been stabbed in the chest”, said DCI Hodgman, senior investigating officer in the case. 

“While Reece was lying critically injured on the floor, Owusu approached again swirling his belt in the air, before striking it at a friend of Reece, who was on the phone to the ambulance. The men then fled the scene a second time.” 

Police said that “Reece’s friends and the teenage girl attempted to stem the bleeding from his stab wound”.  

Shortly after, the police and paramedics were on the scene and Reece was rushed to hospital.  

He eventually died shortly after a few days on October 4, 2022. 

“Reece’s family have been left devastated by his death, and I want to once again offer my sincere condolences to them. I hope the sentences handed to Owusu and James today will go some way to helping them start to rebuild their lives”, added DCI Hodgman.  

“I would like to thank the team of officers, who have worked tirelessly on this case for the last seven months. Their hard work and dedication have helped to secure justice for Reece and his family.”