Man jailed for 'cowardly' murder

Cromie stabbed Mr Cornall in the back

A man has been jailed for life for what a judge described as the "cowardly and unprovoked" murder of an innocent man walking through a Lancashire park.

David Cornall, 30, was stabbed in the back while walking home from a night out in Preston on 12 February.

Liam Cromie, 20, had confronted him in Ribbleton Park along with other members of his Callon estate gang.

A judge at Preston Crown Court told Cromie, who was convicted last month, he would serve a minimum of 18 years.

The court heard that Mr Cornall had simply been "in the wrong place at the wrong time".

There were suggestions that Cromie may have thought his victim had testified in a court case, which led to the confrontation.

'Low intelligence'

However, speaking after the hearing, Det Supt Steve Brunskill, who led the investigation, said the killer's motive remained unclear.

He said: "Liam Cromie is a young man who willingly engaged himself in the violent criminality associated with gang culture.

Your mindless violence ended the life of an innocent man Judge Julian Flaux

"It is not clear whether this was a random murder or whether Liam Cromie thought, mistakenly, that David Cornall was a witness in a case against one of his friends.

"Only Liam Cromie knows the answer to this question."

Cromie, who the detective said was "of low intelligence", refused to answer police questions.

Mr Cornall, who was running away from Cromie when he was stabbed, staggered to his sister's house on Hesketh Road where he collapsed.

Mr Cornall had been on a night out before he was murdered

He was taken by ambulance to the Royal Preston Hospital but died a few hours later.

Investigations led detectives to Cromie, who claimed he had been at his grandmother's house at the time of the stabbing.

But police took covert recordings at his Waldon Street home on the Callon estate in which he implicated himself in the murder.

CCTV also established that Cromie was in the Ribbleton Park area at the time.

Judge Julian Flaux told him: "Your mindless violence ended the life of an innocent man.

"It is difficult to imagine a more cowardly attack on a man who was doing nothing more than minding his own business."