Farm hand faces life for murder after stabbing doorman in frenzied attack

The jury at Exeter Crown Court took less than an hour to find Matthew Sheridan guilty after a two week trial in which he denied carrying out the brutal knife attack in a bedsit in Yeovil on December 12 last year.

He stabbed Louis Bednall repeatedly in the back, head and neck and left a scene of horror after one wound cut into his jugular vein sent blood spurting onto the walls and ceilings of the small room.

An eye witnesses said the stabbing was like a scene from a horror movie and all attempts to stem the bleeding failed.

The victim Louis Bednall was visiting friends in the same block of flats in Hendford Hill where Sheridan had spent the night drinking and taking drugs with the tenant of an upstairs room.

Father-of-five Mr Bednall, 40, from South Devon, was a doorman at pubs and club in Torbay and Newton Abbot who had previously worked on security at Torbay Hospital.

Louis Bednall.

He was killed in a frenzied knife attack after demanding Sheridan hand back the litre bottle of vodka he had just stolen from flat 4 on the middle floor.

Sheridan, nicknamed Manic, broke into the room when Mr Bednall, tenant Simon Bishop, and their girlfriends had gone out to buy Pot Noodles just before midnight.

The group returned from Tesco to find Sheridan with the bottle in the hallway and an argument started that simmered for 20 minutes before it flared into violence.

CCTV on the stairs and landings of the building showed Sheridan and his friend Derrick ‘Diggy’ Michael going in and out of Room 4 before Sheridan went upstairs and apparently armed himself with a knife.

Footage showed him checking that it was in his back pocket and not visible before he went into Room 4 and stabbed Mr Bednall in an attack that took less than 45 seconds.

He then ran downstairs, went outside, threw away the murder weapon and returned with Mr Michael to the upstairs room. The knife was never recovered.

Sheridan and Mr Michael then recorded a bizarre series of gangsta rap style Snapchat clips in which they bared their chests and boasted about how tough they were.

The police could be heard hammering on the door in some of the clips and one clip showed Sheridan confessing to the murder.

He did not realise that Mr Michael’s phone was still recording and bragged: "I put it in and twisted it. I think I’ve just been done for murder. I just murdered someone."

Sheridan, 30, of South Petherton, denied murder but was found guilty and will be sentenced tomorrow (Friday).

He tried to blame Mr Michael for the killing but all three eye witnesses in the room identified Sheridan, who was seen on CCTV covered in blood as he left Room 4.

Judge Peter Johnson told him: “You have been convicted of murder on the clearest and most compelling evidence. There is only one sentence and that is life imprisonment.

“I will decide the precise tariff of how long you will serve before you are considered for parole tomorrow.”

Anna Vigars, QC, prosecuting, said police and family liaison officers are already taking victim impact statements from Mr Bednall’s family and friends.

Mr Bednall was visiting Yeovil with his 23-year-old girlfriend Tanaya Robins, who came from the area and was a friend of Mr Bishop and his girlfriend, who was 16 at the time.

The aim of the trip was to deliver Christmas presents but Mr Bednall had stopped on the way from Devon to buy the litre bottle of Russian vodka at Sainsbury's in Newton Abbot.

Miss Robins gave a harrowing account of the killing to the police in a video recorded interview hours later. She was also seen on police bodycam identifying Sheridan as he was taken out of the building after his arrest.

In her police interview, she told how Mr Bednall confronted Sheridan and demanded he return the stolen bottle.

She said: "Manic came back. Something was said and he went bosh and I saw a fist going towards Louis’s neck. I thought it was a fist fight at first and we all jumped in to pull them apart.

“Then I saw a handle in Manic’s hand. I thought it was a screwdriver but that would not have caused two and a half inch cuts, so I think it was a knife.

“It was horrendous. I don’t remember Manic leaving. It happened so fast. I shouted out that he had killed him. I looked at Louis and just knew he wasn’t going to survive – and all because of a bottle of vodka.

“I used my jumper and hoodie to try to apply pressure to the wounds but he was still bleeding hard and could feel the blood pouring between my fingers. I watched him go white.

“I was doing everything I could but he had a punctured jugular. I literally had to watch him die.”