First picture of boy, 17, who 'boasted' about brutal murder after posing with knife
The 17-year-old fatally stabbed 49-year-old Paul Marsh in November last year.
The first picture of a 17-year-old who stabbed a 49-year-old man to death on November 17 last year can now be published.
Jordan Rance was delivering drugs to Paul Marsh in Atherton, Wigan when the fatal knife attack took place.
The 17-year-old stabbed Mr Marsh in the shoulder, severing his carotid artery following a minor disagreement at the flat in Atherton.
The 49-year-old had been ‘attempting to provoke’ the teen, who was delivering drugs to his flat, by asking what he was looking at on his phone and prodding him to draw his attention, prosecutor Michael Hayton KC told Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court.
According to Manchester Evening News (M.E.N), a row ensued leading the pair to square up to each other, during which Rance pulled a large kitchen knife, which was said to part of his "drug dealer’s kit".
After being stabbed and suffering from severe blood loss, Mr Marsh died.
Rance scarpered and later sent a voice note to a friend "boasting" about the stabbing.
Following his arrest he initially lied to the police, claiming that Mr Marsh had brought the knife and stabbed himself during the struggle.
The boy later changed his defence, insisting that he picked up the knife from a nearby TV stand during the altercation and acted in self defence.
Jurors didn't accept his account and found him guilty of murder following a trial earlier this year.
The court heard that the pair had had a fight two weeks before the fatal attack at the flat on Samuel Street. Two days before Mr Marsh’s murder, Rance had been round to his flat selling drugs, and proceeded to take a picture of himself posing with a knife, the prosecutor said.
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In an emotionally charged victim impact statement, Mr Marsh’s mum, Carol Ann Smith, said: “He was a character loved by many, endured by others - whatever the circumstances it was an interaction you never forgot. I will never profess that my son was an angel and won’t paint him as something he wasn’t because he is no longer with us.
“But I stand by the fact that no one has the right to take his life. The person who stabbed my son made a conscious decision to do so. There are no winners in this.”
She said that her life had been left in "limbo" following her son's death.
“When a child loses their parents, they are an orphan. When a wife loses a husband, they are a widow. What am I called now?” she asked.
Rance, of Platt Hill Avenue, Bolton, was jailed for life at His Majesty’s Pleasure to serve a minimum term of 21 years in prison.
Sentencing, Judge Tina Landale said he attacked Mr Marsh in an act of 'perceived disrespect': “I am fully satisfied that you came to the flat armed with a knife. You stabbed him over a minor disagreement as his friends looked on in horror as his life drained out of him.”
