MURDER victim Francis McNally was a kind, gentle, intelligent and caring man who had so much to give the world before he was killed, Leeds Crown Court heard.

He wrote poetry, loved music and composed a “fish and chip shop” league with his father in which they travelled around North Yorkshire and into East Yorkshire on road trips, comparing the different takeaways.

He dreamt of settling down, meeting a “good woman” and having a loving family of his own.

Born in Leeds in September 1986, he was 35 when he died at the hands of Curtis Turpin and Adam Hudson, neither of whom he knew.

On October 26, 2021, he went with Turpin to the murderer’s flat in Markham Crescent, off Haxby Road, York, and never left it alive.

“It was out of character for him to go to the home of someone he didn’t know,” his sister Alexandra told the court.

Speaking of the pair that killed him, Mr McNally's sister said she wished she could have warned him “not to trust people, not to go with these violent and evil men".

“What happened to my brother is unforgiveable.”

Of her grief, she said: “It feels like my heart has been ripped out. I have felt physically sick. It feels as if it will never end.”

Shortly before he was killed, Mr McNally had finished redecorating his home, something of which he was very proud.

Mr McNally’s father Jim said that his son had had difficulties but had managed to overcome them and was looking forward to the future with hope.

The father talked about his “intelligent, funny, kind and generous” son who was always willing to help others and had so much love to give.

He said he knew he should try to forgive those who killed his son, but he couldn’t do so, particularly when he thought of the “savage” violence by which his child had died.

He read out a short poem by his son called “Every Night”.

Both relatives and Mr McNally’s mother June spoke of the agony they continue to suffer because of their loss.

“He had so much love to give and such great potential,” she said.

She said no parent should have to arrange the funeral of their child, as she with her family had had to do. 

In a family statement issued after the sentencing hearing, they said: “We are extremely grateful to all those who worked so hard to obtain justice for Francis and we can take some consolation in the fact that the jailing of the guilty parties may well save the lives of others.”

They sat throughout the killers’ trial, at times hearing harrowing details about what had happened to their son, and their dignity and self control at all times was praised by Judge Andrew Stubbs KC and the police.