Killer faces life imprisonment after stabbing Macaulay Byrne outside Sheffield's Gypsy Queen pub

Bovic Mupolo, of Fleury Rise, Gleadless, Sheffield, was found guilty by a Sheffield Crown Court trial jury on November 24 of murdering Macaulay – known as Coley – after violence flared outside pub in Beighton on Boxing Day, 2021.

The 21-year-old defendant, who fled the pub with his 25-year-old friend Layton Morris after the stabbing, carried on with their night-out visiting The Mason Arms, in Wickersley, Rotherham, and the Crystal Bar and Viper Rooms, on Carver Street, Sheffield, according to prosecuting barrister John Harrison KC, as Coley lay bleeding to death.

Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, The Recorder of Sheffield, who is due to sentence Mupolo today, warned him yesterday: “You have been convicted of murder and therefore the only sentence I can pass on you by law is one of life imprisonment.”

He has to determine the minimum number of years the killer has to spend behind bars before he can be considered for parole.

Jurors were told that Mupolo and 26-year-old Coley had been involved in a fight at the pub that spilled into the car park. Coley suffered four stab wounds, with two of them eventually proving fatal. After staggering back into the pub after the attack, he bled out behind the bar before he was taken by ambulance to Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital where he died a short time later.

Mupolo claimed he had not stabbed Coley, that he had been racially insulted and he had been defending himself.

Jurors heard that after the stabbing, Mupolo and Mr Morris took a taxi to Swinton and changed clothes at Mr Morris’ address before going to a pub in Rotherham and two bars in Sheffield.

Layton Morris, of Sidney Street, Swinton, near Mexborough, Rotherham, was found not guilty of assisting an offender after he had been accused of helping Mupolo escape.

Mr Morris stated that they had been subjected to racist threats so they had left the pub and he had not known there had been a stabbing.