Student killed 'loving' grandfather, 72, after walking him home from pub

A student who launched a “sustained and serious” assault on a pensioner and then ignored pleas to call an ambulance has been jailed for 10 years.

Rhys Reynolds, 20, helped 72-year-old Tony McCorry home after meeting him in a local pub before attacking him.

Rather than calling an ambulance, he made a series of telephone calls to friends, leaving the grandfather-of-eight lying injured for nearly two hours before an ambulance was finally called. The pensioner was pronounced dead later in hospital.

Reynolds, 20, of Landswood Close, Kingstanding, was cleared of murder but convicted of unlawful killing following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court in October. On Friday he was ordered to be detained for 10 years.

Judge Francis Laird QC said the student had given the appearance of helping the victim — who had spent his working life in Birmingham helping the homeless after growing up in a Glasgow orphanage — back to his home in Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield, after their paths crossed in a nearby pub in December 2019.

The judge said that while jurors had found there was no intention to kill or cause really serious injury, Reynolds had lied to friends, the police, and the court about what happened inside McCorry’s home.

He told Reynolds, who appeared via a video-link from Brinsford Young Offender Institution in Staffordshire: “Tony McCorry was a loving and loved father, grandfather and brother. No sentence I pass today on you could begin to mitigate the devastating loss to his family caused by his death.”

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During Reynolds’ trial, jurors heard that Reynolds, who claimed he acted in self defence, phoned numerous friends, telling one the pensioner had fallen downstairs, while informing another he had struck him with an ashtray.

An ambulance was eventually called by a female friend of Reynolds almost two hours after he and McCorry entered the pensioner’s home.

McCorry was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived at his home. The pensioner, who walked with the aid of a stick, died of heart failure after suffering four fractures to his larynx, thought to have been caused by a severe grip or blows, as well as injuries to his scalp, jaw and torso.

Rejecting claims that Reynolds, who has a history of mental health issues, had been attempting to defend himself, Judge Laird said: “You have told many lies about the events in the house. What is clear is that the cause of Tony McCorry’s death was a heart attack which was brought on by the trauma he suffered at your hands.

“Following the infliction of those injuries you remained in the house. You began to make a series of calls to friends in which you gave conflicting and untrue accounts of what had happened.

“You were told on several occasions to call an ambulance. You did not.”

A family victim impact statement read to the court described McCorry as having an “independent Scottish spirit.”

The statement, written on behalf of his two sons, brother and other family members, said he had “worked with the homeless, as he once was”, adding: “He chose to work towards a brighter future, rather than lament the past.”

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