Irish jockey jailed for murder by English court
An Irish jump jockey has been jailed for life by an English court, for murder.
23-year-old Christopher McGrath was told by the judge that it is a mystery why he turned from a decent well-rounded individual into a madman.
McGrath, who is from Carrick-on-Suir in Co Tipperary, was a jockey for a Co Durham-based racehorse trainer at the time of the murder last July. He was also living at Norman Mason's riding stables.
Teeside Crown Court heard that McGrath, who was filled with a cocktail of alcohol and ecstasy, had a fight with the victim outside a pub where he had been drinking until the early hours.
He knocked him over, hit him in the face with a brick and throttled him, leaving him for dead.
The jury heard tape recordings McGrath subsequently made to friends, begging them to protect him from police after he realised what he had done.
McGrath had pleaded not guilty to the murder of the village window-cleaner, until today, when he changed his plea to guilty.
