Bodybuilder Robert Owen Greenhalgh jailed 11 years for punching a father-of-two Smethurst to death when he accidentally stepped on his foot in a nightclub
TSB News reports that a cocaine and steroid fueled bodybuilder who killed a ‘warm hearted’ father Robert Smethurst in an ‘out of the blue’ attack in a nightclub in Bolton, Greater Manchester, has been jailed for more than 11 years.
Robert Owen Greenhalgh, 31 – who called himself the ‘hardest c*** in the North West’ – punched Robert Smethurst, 36, hard enough to cause immediate brain trauma.
Mr Smethurst had accidentally stepped on Greenhalgh’s foot earlier that night – while celebrating his birthday with cousin Aaron Bates in Luxe Lounge on Bradshawgate – but had apologised and there were seemingly no further problems.
However later, at around 1.30am in the incident on September 2 last year, Greenhalgh without warning hit Mr Bates and then punched Mr Smethurst with the force of a ‘heavyweight boxer’, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Mr Bates was able to break his fall and suffered concussion but had no memory of the attack. Mr Smethurst was declared dead about an hour later.
After the brutal blow, Greenhalgh apparently said: ‘Who else wants some?’
The jailed bodybuilder has now been declared ‘dangerous’, and sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison.
Sentencing judge Anthony Cross QC said: ‘Not for one moment did you consider that which you had done, other than to glory in your achievement and invite others to attack you.’
Mr Smethurst’s wife Amanda, a primary school teacher, told the courtroom she was ‘robbed’ of her ‘husband, (her) best friend, (her) happiness and (her) future all in one’.
Calling Greenhalgh a ‘coward’, she added: ‘How could someone be so violent and hateful towards my husband who did absolutely nothing to deserve this attack?
‘The love for my husband is overwhelming proof of what an incredible man he is. I miss him more than words could ever describe.’