Paul McGrath

Paul McGrath was found at the foot of his stairs in the hallway of his home having been stabbed 18 times.

Two men were tried for his murder at Manchester Crown Court but acquitted. It was noted at the trial that one witness had given a detailed statement of the circumstances around the murder, but had then withdrawn it.

He was murdered shortly after midnight on 7 April 1997 at his terraced house in Holland Street West, Denton. His body was found later that morning at 7.30am after workmen found his door ajar..

He had earlier on been out drinking with his partner at a number of pubs including the Stamford Arms in Denton Road, Audenshaw, the Dog and Partridge in Ashton Road, Denton, and the Silver Springs pub.

It was said that after leaving the pub he had gone home alone as he had had to get his things ready for the following day at work and then gone to bed but that at 1am two men had hammered on his door and that he had got out of bed in his boxer-shorts and turned off his burglar alarm and opened the door after which he was then stabbed to death.

The police said that they thought that he had been murdered simply because he had been a friend of someone that the killer's had been after following a long running feud after one of the daughters of one of the men tried had gone to live with Paul McGrath's friend. It was noted that another friend of the man that the men had a dispute with had been attacked a few weeks before Paul McGrath's murder with a snooker ball in a sock but that the attack was never formerly reported to the police.

At the trial the court heard that a tiny fragment of a kitchen knife was found and that it matched a set found at the house of one of the men tried for the murder.

It was also heard that footprints found at Paul McGrath's home matched those of training shoes owned by the two men.

The men had been 54 and 29 years old at the time of the trial and it was noted that the 54-year-old man died in 2015.

The jury had deliberated for half an hour before returning their not guilty verdict.

The police said that they thought that there were people that knew exactly what had happened and who had carried out that murder and appealed for them to come forward.

Paul McGrath was described as a gentle and quiet man and to have been a keen birdwatcher, his house being said to have been brimming with books and magazines on ornithology. He had also been a keen Manchester United fan.

He was known as Maggie and had worked as a joiner based at Openshaw. He had recently entered a relationship with a woman and it was said that they had been planning a future together.