Curtis Turpin and Adam Hudson guilty of murdering Francis McNally

Curtis Turpin, 35, only met Francis McNally, 35, the day before he killed him. 

They encountered each other at the Diamond mini market off-licence near Turpin's home - and the strangler invited him back home so they could drink together.  Mr McNally was never to leave the flat alive.

The off-licence where Curtis Turpin and Francis McNally met (Image: Google Street View)

The jury also convicted Turpin of strangling a woman a few weeks before the murder. She survived and gave evidence against him during the murder trial, as did another man Turpin had strangled during the same period.

The jury heard he has previous convictions for robbery and wounding, during which he grabbed victims by the throat or strangled them without killing them.

• Read about Turpin's years of violence

While he was waiting trial for murder, unknown to the jury, Turpin was sentenced for an affray in York when he  and two people not involved in the murder attacked another man in the city centre.

• Read more about that case here

Adam Craig Hudson, 41, first saw Mr McNally when he arrived at Turpin's flat on the afternoon of the assault that left the victim with 29 injuries.

Mr McNally is not the first man to die through the actions of Hudson, who was 18 when he used a stolen motorbike to mow down 77-year-old  Jack Middleton on a cycle path. The retired milkman died of his injuries.

• Read more about that case here and how it was just one of several violent incidents in Hudson's past, including against his own family.

After the unanimous verdicts were delivered Judge Andrew Stubbs KC told the two murderers: “The only sentence that can be passed, having been convicted of murder, is life imprisonment.”

He said he would decide on the exact length of time they will have to serve before the Parole Board can consider their release on parole on Monday after hearing representations from their barristers and the prosecution barrister.

He will also hear personal statements from Mr McNally’s family.

Those close to the dead man sat in the public gallery at Leeds Crown court throughout the nine-day trial, including at times through harrowing evidence, as the prosecution described exactly what had happened to Mr McNally in Turpin’s flat.

They hugged each other and cried after the guilty verdicts were announced.

Turpin, of Markham Crescent, off Haxby Road, York, and Hudson, of Rowntree Avenue, Clifton, had both denied murder.  Hudson had admitted the lesser alternative charge of manslaughter.   

Turpin had also denied actual bodily harm to the woman.

Neither gave any reaction as the verdicts were returned after the jury had been in retirement for three and a half hours.   Both were remanded in custody.

The jury heard that both murderers spent their days drinking and taking drugs.

According to Turpin, Mr McNally and he drank on the night of October 26 and 27, 2021 and Mr McNally was asleep when he left his flat when the killer left late the following morning.

Turpin met his long-time friend Hudson near the hostel for the homeless in Union Street and they went back to the flat together.

There, the two told the jury, they found Mr McNally  still asleep. Hudson stole his wallet and phone and together the two killers went to the nearly Gold Mine mini market to buy alcohol using his bank card.

They returned to the flat shortly after 2pm.

By the time police arrived at the flat at 5.30pm that day, Mr McNally was dead, with his head and face covered in 17 injuries which a pathologist said had been inflicted by feet, hands and part of a vacuum cleaner.

He had also been strangled, possibly with a pair of pyjama bottoms found round his neck and had injuries to his arms and upper chest.