Sidney Anthony Palmer, known to his family and friends as ‘Sid’, sustained a single stab wound and died shortly after in hospital on the evening of Saturday 30 September last year.

At around 6.15pm, there was an altercation with Nathan Pritchard and another man in Conduit Street, Leicester.

Shortly after, outside a store on London Road, Pritchard was punched by an unknown man who was believed to be acting on behalf of the man involved in the earlier altercation.

At around 7pm Pritchard, again in Conduit Street, challenged the first man in the altercation and called Michael Berlin, who threatened the man.

Victor-Eduard Raja then received a call from Berlin and made his way to the scene.

The prosecution believed he was instructed by Pritchard to attack an associate of the person he had been arguing with. Raja, on arriving to the location, saw the man and a fight started with Raja violently punching him.

Several people intervened – one of which was Sidney Palmer – who was not involved at all in the wider incident and tried to act as a peacemaker attempting to pull Raja away.

CCTV showed Raja arming himself with a knife he was carrying and swinging towards Sidney but missed.

Immediately repeating this action, he struck Sidney to the chest with a single stab wound.

All the defendants quickly left the scene as Sidney was taken to hospital where sadly he died a short time later.

A post-mortem examination later confirmed he died from the stab wound which had passed through his heart and lung.

A murder investigation promptly commenced, and officers were able to track that Raja had taken a taxi and was dropped off on Blackbird Road.

Raja was later picked up by his mother, Diana Bodrug, who drove him to Yorkshire and assisted in booking him into accommodation under false details and bought him a new phone SIM card.

Through extensive enquiries, Raja was traced to an address and arrested by armed officers in the early hours of Thursday 5 October.

After being interviewed by detectives, where he made no comment to questions asked, 25-year-old Raja, of no fixed address, was charged with murder and remanded into custody.

Michael Berlin, 31, of Great Central Way, Leicester and Nathan Pritchard, 29, of Conduit Street were charged in the days after Sidney’s death with conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent.

Following further investigation work and consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, they were charged with further offences. Prichard was charged with murder while Berlin was charged with manslaughter.

Diana Bodrug, 49, of Melton Road, Syston was charged with assisting an offender.

Following a trial at Leicester Crown Court, which concluded today (Wednesday 5 June), the defendants were found guilty as follows:

Raja was found guilty of murder and possession of a bladed/pointed article in a public place

Berlin was found guilty of manslaughter

At the beginning of the trial, Pritchard pleaded guilty to manslaughter and Bodrug pleaded guilty to assisting an offender.

All four will be sentenced on Monday 24 June.

A 34-year-old man was found not guilty of manslaughter following the trial.