A cocaine and steroid addled bodybuilder who called himself the 'hardest c*** in the North West' killed a loving dad in an unprovoked attack in a nightclub. Robert Owen Greenhalgh punched 36-year-old Robert Smethurst as the dad-of-two celebrated his birthday with his cousin Aaron Bates in Bolton town centre.
Mr Smethurst, a company director for a firm in the aviation industry, had accidentally stood on Greenhalgh's foot earlier in the evening, but he had apologised and there were no further problems while they were both in Luxe Lounge on Bradshawgate. Without warning, at about 1.30am Greenhalgh, 31, a joiner who ran his own firm, 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 but the blow to Mr Smethurst caused immediate brain trauma even before he fell to the ground. After brutally attacking the pair, Greenhalgh puffed out his chest and shouted 'Who else wants some?"
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He has now been declared 'dangerous' and jailed for more than 11 years after admitting manslaughter following the attack on September 2 last year. "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," sentencing judge Anthony Cross QC said.
Mr Smethurst's wife Amanda, a primary school teacher, bravely told a packed courtroom of how her life has been turned upside down by the loss of her soulmate. "I was robbed of my husband, my best friend, my happiness and my future all in one," she said.
Labelling Greenhalgh as a 'coward', she added: "How could someone be so violent and hateful
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