Robert Goodwin guilty of Shane Thompson murder

A man has been found guilty of the "frenzied" murder of a friend who offered him a job after being released from prison.

Shane Thompson, 32, was found with multiple stab wounds at a house in Bartley Green, Birmingham, on 4 December 2021.

Robert Goodwin, 32, had spent the day working with his victim when the pair headed to a pub before the attack, Birmingham Crown Court heard.

He is due to be sentenced on 4 April.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that after the pub, the friends returned to the home of Mr Thompson's girlfriend.

There Goodwin attacked him, with Mr Thompson running up the stairs to escape, it was revealed during a two-week trial.

His efforts were in vain as Goodwin chased him armed with a knife, stabbing him in the back and chest before fleeing the scene in his victim's car, leaving him dying at the property, the court heard.

Mr Thompson's body was discovered by his girlfriend who returned home later that evening to find him on her bed in a pool of blood.

The attacker was spotted some hours later in a dishevelled, injured state by a member of the public, with an off-duty police officer taking him to hospital, alerting West Midlands Police.

Goodwin, of Washington Court, Birmingham, had admitted causing the death of Mr Thompson but denied murder.

"Shane Thompson's life was tragically cut short by someone he trusted and who betrayed that trust in the worst possible way," said Emily Clewer of the CPS.

She added: "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.

"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."

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