A killer’s supporters were ‘ejected from court’ after some yelled “they’re all corrupt” and “may God have mercy on them” following his conviction. Thomas Dures, 21, escaped the country within hours of fatally knifing teenage victim Matthew Daulby during a street fight in Ormskirk, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Dures was found guilty of murder and wounding with intent this week after a trial at Preston Crown Court. A witness informed the Echo that two women who came to court backing Dures had to be escorted from the premises following the verdict whilst screaming and shouting. They were said to have made remarks including “they’re all corrupt, the whole place is corrupt, everybody is corrupt”. One was overheard saying “may God have mercy on them”, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Jurors had earlier been told Mr Daulby journeyed to the Ormskirk vicinity with mates on the night of July 29, 2023 after getting a message in a group chat, called “M.R.S”, which claimed that one of their group, who was alone and using crutches, had been struck three times by Dures.
This sparked a confrontation close to Alpine Bar on Railway Road, with the accused having been at the venue with his accomplice Henry Houghton earlier that evening. The latter struck Mr Daulby across the head with an improvised weapon, made from a rock crammed into a sports sock, during the resulting brawl. The 19 year old sustained damage to his skull and frontal lobe during the attack, though this wound was not fatal in itself.
But Dures, of Whalley Drive in Aughton, West Lancashire, then delivered the fatal strike to the chest with a blade which he had been carrying throughout the evening, having claimed that he was looking after the weapon on behalf of Houghton. Mr Daulby managed to flee the scene of the brawl but collapsed on nearby Moorgate, later being declared dead at Aintree Hospital in the early hours of July 30.
Dures also knifed two other men during the confrontation before escaping. He discarded his jacket in a nearby park in the aftermath and handed his man bag to a friend.
Having washed his face in the Railway pub and disposed of the knife in an alleyway, he then took a taxi home before travelling to a friend’s home at around 3am. It was there that he apparently first learned that the brawl had resulted in serious injuries, having told jurors from the witness box: “I didn’t believe it. I didn’t think anyone was seriously injured, because I clearly seen everyone was able to run away.”
Following posts on Facebook which reported Mr Daulby’s death, he was collected from the Plough Inn pub by an unknown driver and taken to Kent. He thereafter travelled via the Channel Tunnel to Austria, took a coach to southern Italy and boarded a ferry to Greece. Asked why he had absconded to Europe, Dures said in his evidence: “I was scared of going to prison. There was a £10,000 bounty on my head. I was scared to come back.”
In the meantime, Houghton, of Barrison Green in Scarisbrick, was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years behind bars for Mr Daulby’s murder.
Following his conviction, Dures is now set to be sentenced on Monday next week. Detective Chief Inspector Andy Fallows, from Lancashire Police’s major investigation team, said after Thursday’s verdict: “After two long years, the man responsible for fatally stabbing Matthew Daulby has finally been brought to justice.
“This has been two years of pain and frustration, in which the Daulbys have had so many unanswered questions. They have had to figure out a way to try and grieve, knowing the man responsible for taking their son’s life before it had really started was actively evading justice and celebrating his 21st birthday in the sun, something Matthew will never be able to do.
“I’d like to thank my investigation team for everything they have done in securing this conviction, the Crown Prosecution Service and our KC, Peter Glenser, and junior counsel Katy Appleton.
“I would also like to thank the public and the media for all the witness appeals they shared and their help in keeping this case in the spotlight.”