Judge Andrew Menary QC's findings upon sentencing were particularly damning on this and several other fronts. Not only did he rule that class A and B drug dealing was his primary source of income, he also found that Mr Brophy had not been armed with a knife - nor did any of his accomplices have a gun.
There was always more to this case. The bottom line is that the victim was a burglar after a stash - he was unarmed. The convicted man was a drug dealer who stabbed the burglar to death, returning to stab the body some more.