Carpenter Shane Thompson was stabbed 17 times in a “merciless” attack inside his girlfriends home, the 32 year old was found in a pool of his own blood by his girlfriend on her bed following the savage attack on December 4, 2021.
Birmingham Crown Court heard that Shane made an attempt to run up the stairs away from his attacker before Robert Goodwin, 32, allegedly stabbed him in the back of the legs. Goodwin denied the charges but has been convicted of murdering his friend in a frenzied knife attack.
Robert Goodwin, 32, of Birmingham, was found guilty today (8 February 2023) of the murder of 32-year-old Shane Thompson following a trial that lasted two weeks.
Shane Thompson suffered multiple stab wounds when he was fatally stabbed by Robert Goodwin during the evening of 4 December 2021.
The murder
The court heard that both men had spent the day together at work before heading to the pub after work and then the home of Mr Thompson’s girlfriend in Bartley Green.
Shane had met Robert when he was in prison for 5 days and promised him a job when Robert left prison himself shortly after.
Robert had only been free for several days but a previous padmate in prison told Scarcity that Robert had a temper and had previously been violent to cellmates in drug induced psychosis style attacks.
Robert and Shane had been drinking and doing cocaine on the day and the knife he used to kill Shane came from the kitchen, where the incident started.
Robert never said why he killed Shane and this will be something that must be hard for his family to process.
At some point during the evening, Goodwin mercilessly attacked Mr Thompson who fled and ran up the stairs to escape him. However, Goodwin chased him with a knife, stabbing him in the back, chest, and abdomen before fleeing the scene in Mr Thompson’s car, leaving him dying on the bed.
Mr Thompson’s body was discovered by his girlfriend who returned home later that evening to find him collapsed on her bed in a pool of blood. Robert Goodwin was seen some hours later in a dishevelled, injured state by a member of the public and an off-duty police officer took him to hospital and alerted the police. Goodwin admitted killing Shane Thompson but denied murder and the CPS proceeded to trial.
Mr Dawes said: “Shane must have felt comfortable in the company of the defendant to invite him back to his girlfriend’s house. From the blood distribution within the house, it seems as though Shane ran away from the defendant as he was stabbed. “The defendant pursued Shane up the stairs in this small house stabbing him to the back of his legs as he ascended the stars.” He added that Mr Thompson fled to the bedroom to make a “last stand before being stabbed to death”.
Emily Clewer of the CPS said: “Shane Thompson’s life was tragically cut short by someone he trusted and who betrayed that trust in the worst possible way. Robert Goodwin had just been released from prison just days before the murder and Mr Thompson offered him a source of employment, and this kindness ended up costing Mr Thompson his life.
“While we may never know the motive behind this needless crime, I welcome today’s guilty verdict which will ensure that a dangerous man is held accountable for his crime. I know that no outcome can replace the terrible loss that Mr Thompson’s family have suffered but I hope it brings them a small measure of comfort that justice has been served.”
He will be sentenced on 4 April 2023.
