Man guilty of Radcliffe murder

A man has been found guilty of murdering his friend in his home in Radcliffe in August last year.

On the morning of 22 August 2023, Ian Connell, 39, was seen by a postman climbing into the window of a house on Ainsworth Road, then a short time later leaving the property with a dog.

When police officers attended what they assumed was a burglary, they found 45-year-old Donald Prentice Patience, who was known as Prent, inside the house at the bottom of the stairs covered in a duvet, deceased.

When Connell, who was still in the area, was arrested and searched, he had Mr Patient's labradoodle with him along with his wallet, driving licence, and library card.

Connell offered officers various stories firstly saying that Mr Patient was in Scotland and had asked him to look after the dog, that when he last saw him he was alive, and later that he found him already deceased. In each version of events, he denied murdering him because he loved him as a father or brother.

However two people he resided with overhead a phone conversation when he told the caller that he had ‘killed his boss'.

A postmortem showed that Mr Patience had been strangled on or after 19 August.

Today following a trial at Manchester Crown Court, Ian Connell has been found guilty of his murder.

Richard Holliday, Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West said: "We will never know what happened in the house leading up to Mr Patient's death or what Ian Connell's motivation was for attacking the man he claimed to love like family.

"After careful consideration of the evidence we presented to the jury, today they have found him guilty of causing his death.

"My thoughts are with Mr Patient's family and friends, and all those who have been affected by his death at this time."