TWO men who have been convicted of murdering 24-year-old Carlisle man Ryan Kirkpatrick are facing life sentences.

Kane Hull, 29, and Liam Craig Porter, 33, denied being involved in the fatal stabbing outside a bar in Carlyle’s Court in the city centre on September 18 last year.

It took a jury seven hours to deliver unanimous guilty verdicts.

The defendants may be facing minimum jail terms measured in decades. They were convicted after a trial that lasted eight days, during which the prosecution presented overwhelming evidence of their guilt.

Hull, helped by Porter, carried out the fatal stabbing just 15 minutes after he had made a failed attempt to glass Mr Kirkpatrick.

That was foiled thanks to courageous bystanders who intervened to stop the violence.

It was shortly after 8.45pm when the defendants – their faces concealed by hoodies and balaclavas - returned to carry out the attack. Within the hour, Hull and Porter had burned the car they were using and their clothes.

They then fled the country, travelling under false names first to Northern Ireland and from there on to the Republic of Ireland. Cumbria Police carried out a huge investigation, which ultimately led to more than a dozen arrests.

Unusually, during the trial, neither Porter, of Fulmar Place, Carlisle, and Hull, of no fixed abode, gave evidence in their own defence.

Their barristers – Toby Hedworth KC for Hull and Liam Walker KC for Porter – said the defendants accepted being at Carlyle’s Court during the 8.30pm encounter when Hull tried to attack Mr Kirkpatrick.

But both defendants denied being present when he was fatally stabbed. Their denials came despite powerful CCTV evidence which showed unmistakeable similarities between the defendants and the masked knifeman and his accomplice.

One witness who knew Hull also told jurors: “Kane had the intention to go back to Ryan. I could recognise him anyways from what he looked like, his eyes. I could tell it was him from his eyes, from his build.”

In 2017, the court heard, Hull was jailed for attacking Mr Kirkpatrick in a Carlisle betting shop. When he was blamed, Hull blamed his victim. 

As the guilty verdicts were announced, Hull showed no emotion. Porter was also silent, but shook his head. The defendants will be sentenced at 10.30am today. The judge will have to set a "minimum term", the period which must be served behind bars before the defendant is eligible for release on licence.

With convicted murderers being subject to a lifetime licence, both Hull and Porter will remain at risk of recall to prison for the rest of their lives.

Three people who helped the killers escape from Carlisle – 23-year-old Olivia Memmory, from Cummersdale, Ross Neville, 32, from Canonbie, and Michael Celmins, also 32, from Irthington – have all admitted their guilt.

They will be sentenced in due course.