Grant Byrom

Grant Byrom was stabbed in Forest Road, Colchester on Boxing Day in 1998.

He was found on the pavement and taken to the Colchester General Hospital where he later died.

It was thought that he had been to a party nearby.

Earlier in the day he had been playing football and later went to the Clarendon Pub in Harwich Road where he got into a scuffle.

When he was later in Forest Road three men confronted him and one of them stabbed him in the chest. The men then ran off.

In 2013 the police released the name of a man that they were interested in speaking to regarding the murder who used to also live in Colchester but had moved abroad, possibly to Spain, after the murder.

In June 2019 the police said that they were questioning a 72-year-old man that had recently returned to the UK from Thailand and in February 2020 he was charged with Grant Byrom's murder but he was acquitted of murder after a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court on 28 August 2020. He admitted being present at the time but denied being responsible. He also said that he had since learnt who had stabbed him but that he was not going to say who it was.

He said that he had left the country after the murder because he had been accused of something he didn't do and that he didn't want to spend 18 months on remand trying to prove his innocence. He said that he had returned because medical treatment was too expensive in Thailand and that he was better off in England.

He said that Grant Byrom's girlfriend had been with him for the first couple of years but that she got pregnant and he sent her home, stating that he couldn't look after her and the baby whilst he was on his toes and that it was better for the child.

At the trial it was claimed that the man had stabbed Grant Byrom in revenge for Grant Byrom having assaulted one of his friends earlier on in the Clarendon Pub.

The man said that Grant Byrom was murdered over a sausage. He said that he later learnt that his friend was in hospital and went to see him and saw that he had just a scratch, noting that it wasn't severe and definitely not worth killing someone over, adding that he thought that his friend had been a bit of a wimp for being in hospital with it.

He said that he had a party that night and later went into the garden because somebody wanted a plug or something and saw Grant Byrom with all his mates and he told them that they would have to leave else it would all kick off again. However, he said that they attacked him and that he ended up with a cracked rib and a lump on his head, but had no recollection of what happened.

He said that he later found out that Grant Byrom was dead.

He said that at the time he didn't know who did it, but that by the time of the trial he knew, but said that he wasn't going to share that information and put people away. He said:

Grant Byrom was known as Granny.