"Pretty, but very stupid"

A former soccer coach in Great Britain faces a life prison sentence after he was found guilty Tuesday of murdering a young model who named her killer with her dying words.

Amy Leigh Barnes, 19, dialed the British emergency line as she lay fatally injured from multiple stab wounds inflicted with a kitchen knife by her violent boyfriend, Ricardo Morrison.

The aspiring actress, who had represented Britain in beauty pageants and had posed for both Playboy and Cosmopolitan magazines, told an emergency operator: “I can’t breathe. I’ve been stabbed. Please help me. I’m dying. He’s stabbed me to death.” Asked who had attacked her, she replied: “My boyfriend... I’m going... I can’t see.”

Morrison, 22, who denied murder, was convicted after an 11-day trial at Britain's Manchester Crown Court. Clutching a Bible, he bowed his head, put one hand to his face and appeared to begin weeping when the verdict was given.
After the slaying, he fled from the house where the couple were living to his mother’s home in Birmingham, England, where she allowed him to wash his bloodstained clothes

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6730578.ece

Amy Leigh Barnes's killer had history of violence towards women

Ricardo Morrison has a violent history of attacking his partners and other young women which can be revealed today for the first time after he was convicted of killing his girlfriend.

In attacks that bore chilling similarities to his fatal assault on the model and actress Amy Leigh Barnes, Morrison repeatedly abused an ex-girlfriend who was too scared to give evidence against him in his murder trial. He twice bit her on the face and after one assault sent her a text saying: “I hope you die of cancer, just like your dad.”

And less than a month before he stabbed Miss Barnes, 19, to death with a six-inch kitchen knife, he attacked five women, headbutting and punching them in a London nightclub.
Described in court as a “phoney and a bully”, Morrison, a football coach, has four previous convictions for assault and one for harassment of his ex-girlfriend, aged 23, from Birmingham. He never received a custodial sentence and broke a restraining order.

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The jury at Manchester Crown Court that convicted him today of the murder of Miss Barnes was not told of his violent past — or that he faced five charges of grievous bodily harm for the nightclub attack. Mr Justice MacDuff ruled that the details would prejudice a fair trial and Morrison faced overwhelming evidence of his guilt anyway.

The 22-year-old, who was once offered a professional football contract, swaggered into court every day wearing a waistcoat and diamond stud earrings, often adjusting his tie as he listened emotionless to the evidence of how he killed his own girlfriend.

It was through Facebook that he first met Amy Leigh Barnes, an aspiring model who spent a lot of time going to nightclubs frequented by footballers.

In fact a professional football contract from Birmingham City had been on the table for Morrison, then aged 17, but was suddenly withdrawn, sources say due to his “terrible attitude”. After the club released him in 2003 he dropped down the leagues but made no further impression, though he did coach children for a time.

Despite his mother being a well-respected community police officer, on his own MySpace profile Morrison boasted his heritage was “Yardy” (sic), his favourite films the violent gangster movies Goodfellas, Scarface and The Godfather. He dressed “trendy and classy”, wanted to “achieve” and to be his own boss, and listed his one weakness as women.

In February 2005 he was convicted of assault after he locked his then girlfriend in a car, grabbed her by the throat and bit her on the face - puncturing her skin. In fact his mother - who was today cleared of shielding him from justice - handed him into the police on that occasion, and he received a police caution.

But six months later there was another row. His girlfriend asked him to leave, so he slapped and punched her and was given a community order for common assault at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court.

Two months later he attacked her again. Again he bit her on the face, punched her and put his hand over her mouth. Police were called. While officers were talking to his victim, Morrison sent a text to her saying: “Hope you die of cancer just like your dad.”

Officers found him hiding in her shed. He was convicted of two assaults and harassment and given a community order, and a restraining order which he later broke.

Amy, who began dating Morrison in February 2008, would later tell friends of attacks with chilling similarities - locking her in rooms, punching her and putting his hands over her mouth so she could not breath.

Morrison, who described himself as a “woman pleaser”, liked to give the impression of a successful young businessman, quiet spoken and self-assured. “In my eyes, I think I have done well. I’m 22 and own two flats,” he told the jury.

Morrison had bought two city-centre apartments in Birmingham, claiming to have £600,000 in equity. In fact he was a “phoney” - mortgaged to the hilt and being chased by his bank. At the time he killed Amy the couple were living on a fold-up bed in the back bedroom of her grandmother’s two-up, two-down terrace house in Bolton. (nigger much)

Stuart Driver, prosecuting, told the jury the defendant is a “profoundly two-faced man” and when he has a “little woman” before him, a bully.

Three weeks before Morrison stabbed Amy to death the couple were out in Zebrano nightclub in London’s Soho to celebrate Amy’s 19th birthday. He stood blocking the way of a private booth being used by a party of five young women aged between 19 and 22.

When they asked him to move he punched two of the girls in the face and head butted another. He may also have used a bottle. The attack was caught on CCTV but following his conviction for murder it may not now go to court.