'Jägerbomb session' turned to murder within hours after man made new friend at birthday bash
People said Martin O’Donovan and Stephen Bates had struck up a 'bromance' just hours before
A Liverpool family's 70th birthday bash ended in murder after a man was found guilty of killing his girlfriend's brother.
Martin O’Donovan had travelled to the Liverpool suburb of Woolton from Birmingham for his mum’s 70th birthday bash on 18 April. His sister, Susanne Lewzey, was playing host for Susan’s do, with food, music and drinks flowing.
It was apparently a rare visit home for Martin, meaning it was the first time he met Susanne’s boyfriend of 19 months, Stephen Bates.
The two were said to have quickly formed a friendship, bonding over glasses of vodka Red Bull and downing Jägerbombs together. Other people at the party even said they’d struck up a ‘bromance’ as Stephen is said to have turned to his girlfriend and said: “I love your brother. He’s great," hours before he ended up being arrested.
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It’s said Stephen had been drinking since mid-afternoon that day and was worse for wear by the time it got to 10.00pm, with Susanne pulling him aside at one point in a bid to sober him up.
"I've never seen him that drunk. If we go out, we have two or three. I've never seen him bladdered or heavily drunk before, but he was. He was very drunk,” she told detectives.
“He said, 'do you want me to go home then, I'm a k***head?'. He started to get in a mood. That snowballed then. I said, I don't want you to go home, there’s no problem. You’ve had a lot to drink. It's my mum's birthday party, and I want to enjoy it. You can either have a sit-down and chill, or I'll order you a taxi. He said 'I'll go, I'm walking'."
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Susanne said she ordered him an Uber but then had to stop him from trying to drive himself home, getting Martin to help her. But having initially calmed the situation, it suddenly turned into the pair fighting.
“They were literally just battering each other in the garden, I was like, ‘what the hell?’” she added.
Martin’s other sister, Natalie, then drove Stephen home while he ‘threatened to kill’ him.
And when she pulled over to drop him off, he soon sped off in the car himself and drove straight at Martin.
The brother was left lying face down on the road with ‘blood everywhere’ as Stephen ran away before calling 999 himself.
Martin suffered two cardiac arrests before he was taken to hospital and with extensive injuries to his head, chest and abdomen, he was pronounced dead at 4:32am on 19 April.
“We had an argument, and then I've ran him over,” Stephen said during his 999 call at 11:47pm. “You need to send someone quick. I'm staying here. I've done the crime, and I've... I'll f***ing... He's on the floor. I don't know. You need to send someone quick."
In court, Stephen said he didn’t deliberately drive at Martin, insisting he ‘didn’t see him’ and had gone back to see his girlfriend.
He was found guilty of the murder of Martin on Monday (10 November) and will be sentenced later this month.
Jess Battison