A man who was “spoiling for a fight” after an England World Cup game has been found guilty of murdering a celebrity boxing coach with a broken bottle on a night out.
Ross Hamilton, 34, plunged the bottle into the neck of 31-year-old Reece Newcombe in southwest London in November 2022, the Old Bailey heard.
Mr Newcombe, a friend of ex-footballer and TV pundit Ian Wright, held his neck and said: “I’m dead – he’s done me,” before he collapsed.
Jurors heard that Hamilton had three previous convictions for assaulting girlfriends and a taxi driver.
After the verdict was delivered, Mr Newcombe’s family described him as a “shining light” whose life had been “brutally snubbed out by the murderous moronic actions of Ross Hamilton”.
A spokesperson for the family said: “Reece was only able to enjoy being a father to his baby daughter for five months.
“His second daughter whom he would never get to see was born the following summer of 2023.”
The family statement continued: “The outpouring of grief after Reece’s passing was unprecedented, this showed the love people held for him. Four thousand people walked behind family members to lay wreaths at the spot where he was brutally murdered a week before.”
The family thanked jurors, police and witnesses who gave evidence in Hamilton’s trial and said: “As a family, still deeply in mourning, our wish going forward is that he now faces the full weight of the law in its entirety.
“The public, including the women he has previously attacked, will sleep better at night in the knowledge that he will no longer be at liberty to harm, maim or murder anybody else after his day of judgement.”
Ross Hamilton arguing outside the Viva nightclub in Richmond before the murder of Reece Newcombe. Pic: PA
The Old Bailey heard Hamilton was ‘spoiling for a fight’. Pic: PA
Both men had been watching England play the USA in a World Cup game being screened in a fan zone in Richmond Park.
After the match, the men continued to Viva nightclub in Richmond, where Hamilton began acting in an “aggressive and unpredictable manner”.
Prosecutor Louis Mably KC said: “He seemed to be goading people, doing karate kicks on the dance floor and putting his arm around people and behaving aggressively towards them.”
He continued to act aggressively after the club closed and people spilled outside.
Mr Mably said: “He began confronting people and goading them to go and fight him down an alleyway.
“He said, in his words, ‘I will ju-jitsu the f*** out of you’. In short, the bald man [Hamilton] was spoiling for a fight.”
Shortly before 4am, Mr Newcombe made the “tragic decision” to engage with Hamilton, who had already armed himself with a piece of broken glass, the Old Bailey heard.
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Hamilton, from Isleworth, west London, left the scene on Richmond Bridge but later handed himself into police, jurors were told.
Mr Mably said: “The sad truth is there was no need for this fight to happen – it was an event that was fuelled by intoxicated aggression. It was not a case of the defendant defending himself, but of two people willing to fight.”
Jurors were told that Hamilton had a violent streak which first led to a conviction in 2014 for punching a taxi driver on the side of the head in a row over a fare.
In 2018, he received a caution for hitting his girlfriend in the face causing her to fall to the ground.
Two years later he was convicted in Spain of hitting another partner in the shoulder with a bottle, kicking her in the stomach and pushing her to the ground.
Hamilton, who is unemployed, had denied murdering Mr Newcombe and claimed he had acted in self-defence.
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Jurors deliberated for 15 hours and 21 minutes to find Hamilton guilty of murder and assault by beating.
After the verdict, there were tears and a shout of “yes” from the public gallery, while in the dock Hamilton appeared incredulous and asked the jury: “How?”
Judge Anthony Leonard KC remanded him into custody ahead of sentencing on 11 October.
Detective Inspector Kevin Martin, from Scotland Yard, said: “Reece was simply out having a good night with friends. He was a much-loved son, brother, partner and friend to many. He had recently become a father and had so much to look forward to.
“Hamilton was a stranger to him, yet his senseless violence took Reece’s life.”