Life sentence for murder of celebrity boxing coach after World Cup match

Ross Hamilton had been ‘spoiling for a fight’ and armed himself with a broken bottle before he plunged it into the neck of Reece Newcombe, 31.

Reece Newcombe, 31, was stabbed to death with broken glass during a fight on Richmond Bridge in London (Metropolitan Police/PA) (PA Media)

A man has been jailed for life for fatally stabbing a celebrity boxing coach after threatening to “ju-jitsu the f***” out of people after watching England play in a World Cup match.

Ross Hamilton had been “spoiling for a fight” and armed himself with a broken bottle before he plunged it into the neck of Reece Newcombe, 31.

Mr Newcombe, a friend of ex-footballer and TV pundit Ian Wright, held his neck and said: “I’m dead – he’s done me,” before he collapsed.

Hamilton, 34, from Isleworth, west London, was found guilty of murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 19 years at the Old Bailey on Friday.

Judge Anthony Leonard KC told him: “When you gave evidence you said that you had expected a one-on-one fist fight with Reece Newcombe.

“It was clear that you thought it acceptable behaviour after a night out drinking to end with such a fight and, in my judgment, you relished the opportunity for a fight.”

The judge said that in a “brief moment” when he fatally stabbed Mr Newcombe he had “caused a family to lose a treasured member and his partner and children to lose his loving support”.

The court heard Mr Newcombe’s partner Alicia Smith, who was in the early stages of pregnancy, had rushed to hospital.

Judge Leonard said: “Not only has she had to deal with her own grief but she has had to do that through her pregnancy and the birth of their second daughter who will never know her father.”

The judge said Hamilton had a “pattern of violent offending” with three previous convictions for assaulting girlfriends and a taxi driver.

Police had been called to reports of a fight on Richmond Bridge in south-west London in the early hours of November 26 2022.

Prosecutor Louis Mably KC had said the fight was fuelled by “intoxicated aggression” and Hamilton’s decision to arm himself “changed everything”.

Earlier, both Hamilton and Mr Newcombe had been watching England play the USA in a World Cup game being screened in a fanzone in Richmond Park.

Mr Newcombe went on to Viva nightclub in Richmond where he became intoxicated and had a “good time”, jurors were told.

Mr Mably said Hamilton, described as a bald man, had also gone on to the club where be began acting in an “aggressive and unpredictable manner”.

The prosecutor said: “He seemed to be goading people, doing karate kicks on the dance floor and putting his arm around people and behaving aggressively towards them.”

He continued to act aggressively after the club closed and people spilled outside.

Mr Mably said: “He began confronting people, and goading them to go and fight him down an alleyway.

“He said, in his words, ‘I will ju-jitsu the f*** out of you’. In short, the bald man was spoiling for a fight.”

Shortly before 4am, Mr Newcombe made the “tragic decision” to engage with Hamilton, who had already armed himself with a piece of broken glass, jurors heard.

After he was stabbed in the neck, Mr Newcombe’s friends rushed to help him.

Hamilton left the scene but later handed himself in to police, jurors were told.

Jurors were told that Hamilton had a violent streak which first led to a conviction in 2014 for punching a taxi driver to the side of the head in a row over a fare.

In 2018, he received a caution for hitting a girlfriend in the face, causing her to fall to the ground.

Two years later he was convicted in Spain of hitting another partner in the shoulder with a bottle, kicking her in the stomach and pushing her to the ground.

Unemployed Hamilton had denied murdering Mr Newcombe, claiming he had acted in self-defence.

The court was told Hamilton had a “difficult and unsettled childhood” and had expressed remorse in a letter to the judge before he was sentenced.

Hamilton was also handed four months in prison after being found guilty of assault by beating another man. That sentence will run concurrently with the life term.