The incident unfolded when Prescott, alongside friends Kane Adamson and Ben Dawber, launched a brutal attack on Mr. Williamson, believing he was someone else involved in an earlier altercation.
The ‘ferocious’ assault took place in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, where Mr. Williamson, 30, had been out for a walk to clear his head. The trio, under the influence of alcohol and nitrous oxide, mistook him for a different individual involved in a dispute earlier that night.
Judge Maurice Greene, sentencing the three teens after a murder trial, emphasised Mr. Williamson’s innocence, describing him as “the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The fatal attack, captured on CCTV, occurred when the three men mistakenly identified Mr. Williamson as their intended target, who had fled the scene. The murder trial revealed the tragic events leading up to the assault, where the attackers, in a Chevrolet Kalos with false plates, hunted down the wrong person.
Prescott, attempting to appeal his life sentence, argued that it was ‘manifestly excessive’ and pointed to his role as a ‘secondary party’ rather than a principal in the murder. However, the Court of Appeal, led by Lord Justice Males and Mr. Justice Johnson, rejected the appeal, stating that Prescott was actively engaging in violence with the necessary intent for murder.
The written judgment concluded that the minimum term of 17 years imposed on Prescott could not be regarded as manifestly excessive given the circumstances of the case. The decision upholds the severity of the sentence in a case where mistaken identity led to a devastating loss of innocent life.
