Man guilty of murder

A 24-year-old man has been found unanimously guilty of murdering a Sheffield man who was fatally stabbed in an alleyway next to a pub.

It took the jury just two hours and six minutes to find Danny Trotter unanimously guilty of murdering Gavin Singleton yesterday, following a two-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court. 

Trotter fatally stabbed Mr Singleton, 32, in an attack carried out in an alleyway next to the Rawson Spring pub in Hillsborough in the early hours of September 23 last year. He died from his injuries almost two weeks later on October 6. 

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Trotter was also on trial for stabbing Mr Singleton’s friend, Scott Fauvel, during the same incident. 

He was charged with wounding with intent, but jurors found him unanimously guilty of the lesser charge of attempting to inflict grievous body harm without intent. 

Mr Justice Nicklin adjourned the case until this afternoon, when Trotter will be sentenced for both charges. 

Speaking after the jury returned their verdicts, Detective Chief Inspector Jude Ashmore said: “Mr Singleton and Danny Trotter had, in Trotter’s own words, ‘known each other for years’ and were friends. On the night Mr Singleton was critically injured, events had spiralled out of control. Trotter has since said he was acting in self-defence during the altercation, which is said to have been a dispute over money.

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“The fact that Trotter tried to do all he could to avoid taking responsibility for taking Mr Singleton’s life says so much about him as a person. What amounts to a petty dispute over a relatively small sum of money has resulted in a man losing his life.”

Wayne Jones told the court last week how he witnessed Mr Singleton and Mr Fauvel being stabbed by Trotter during an altercation in the alleyway, which backs on to Walkley Lane.   

He told Mr Singleton to ‘run’ after seeing Trotter lunge at him with a knife.