'The police came in and told us our dad had been killed... it didn't make sense'

As the young daughters of Thomas Murphy bravely stood in the witness box of the looming courtroom, their dad’s picture highlighted in a silver frame was broadcast on a TV screen from Ireland.

His brother, Darragh, and family were watching the sentencing hearing of his killer on a videolink, and made sure their dearly beloved sibling was at the forefront of everybody’s minds.

Stephen Owusu, 23, was handed an indefinite hospital order after admitting an offence of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He had stabbed Mr Murphy repeatedly with a 20cm knife before leaving him to die.

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The pair had been housemates at a house on Beverly Road, Fallowfield, for just two months before the brutal attack. Owusu had issues with his mental health, and was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

In September last year, after mistakenly believing Mr Murphy had broken his plate and left a piece of it under the sofa to ‘slight him’, he attacked the dad-of-two and left him with 34 stab wounds.

Reading from their statement, Mr Murphy’s two teenage daughters were side-by-side as they told of the moment the police informed them their dad had died.

“I can remember returning home on Sunday afternoon after seeing my friends, to see the policeman waiting at the top of our road - stood outside our house,” she said. “We knew straight away, we knew it was about dad. We could tell by the look on his face.

“They came into the house and we went upstairs whilst the police spoke to my mum. They then called