Family brands CPS the ‘criminal protection service’ after plea bargain
Grandfather’s despair after murder charges dropped against two men over death of aspiring fireman
THE family of an aspiring firefighter who was killed as he was waiting for a taxi have branded the Crown Prosecution Service the “criminal protection service” after murder charges were dropped against two men.
Duncan Browne, 23, was in Liverpool city centre to watch England play in the quarter-finals of Euro 2020 on July 4 when he was approached by a group trying to jump the queue at a taxi rank.
Terrence Kerwin, 34, struck Mr Browne with an initial punch before his co-defendant Michael Mcloughlin, 36, struck him twice, causing him to fall into the shutter of a shop front and collapse, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
After the attack, the pair got into the taxi and made their way to a party, while Mr Browne was treated by onlookers until paramedics arrived. He was taken to hospital but died the following day.
Kerwin and Mcloughlin were initially charged with murder after a public appeal was launched to find those responsible for the attack.
But yesterday, the pair were sentenced for lesser offences after the CPS accepted Mcloughlin’s guilty plea to manslaughter and Kerwin’s guilty plea to actual bodily harm.
Mcloughlin was sentenced to nine years and four months, while Kerwin was jailed for 10 months. The family of Mr Browne expressed their anger at the murder charges being dropped.
“We all feel despair. We are broken as a family,” Mr Browne’s grandfather John Browne, 72, said outside court.
“We can’t understand the decision to drop the murder charges.
“It seems the CPS is more like the criminal protection service.”
The CPS accepted the pair’s guilty pleas at an earlier hearing last year, when the court heard that the prosecution had “given very careful and anxious consideration” to whether to accept Mcloughlin’s plea to manslaughter.
But based on evidence, the CPS decided “the interests of justice are served by not pursuing Mcloughlin to trial for his murder”, John Benson, QC, prosecuting, said.
The trial heard how Mr Browne, who grew up in Kirkby, Merseyside, had watched the England vs Ukraine match with friends before becoming separated. Mr Benson QC said the defendants arrived at a taxi rank at 3.30am.
The court heard one of the group said “get out of the way, lad” to Mr Browne as they attempted to board the one cab at the rank. They then launched their attack. Sentencing, Judge David Aubrey said: “This was a wholly unprovoked and gratuitous assault.”
The court heard Mcloughlin had 16 previous convictions for 31 offences and had been on licence at the time of the attack after being imprisoned for conspiracy to steal in 2019. Kerwin had 20 previous convictions for 44 offences.
In a statement read to the court, Mr Browne said: “This unprovoked cowardly attack has robbed a kind, respectful, compassionate and dynamic young man, who was born three months premature and had to fight to cling on to life, of a lifetime of fulfilment in following his dream of serving his community as a member of the fire brigade.”
The CPS said: “Our thoughts remain with the family of Duncan Browne following his devastating death.
“Our decision-making in this tragic case – as in any other – was based on an assessment of what it might be possible to prove to a court, in accordance with our legal test.”