Ronald Carmagnole

Ronald Carmagnole was beaten to death as he was walking home along Scotland Road on 12 December 1987.

A man was initially charged with his murder in 1988, but the charge was later dropped.

Another 41-year-old man was tried for his murder in March 2006 but acquitted.

Ronald Carmagnole had been from Mauritius and had been studying physics at Liverpool Polytechnic and had been on a pre-Christmas night out with friends at the time. He had been attacked between 1.30am and 2.15am on 12 December 1987 as he walked home to his student accommodation in Oxford Road, Bootle, and died about 24 hours later.

He was found at 2.15am on the pavement by Scotland road near to the junctions with Stanley Road and Kirkdale Road, on the Hopwood Street and Athol Street side, almost exactly between the roads, near the Athol Vaults public house.

Ronald Carmagnole had been hit with a 3ft-long plank of wood.

After being found he was taken to hospital where he received 14 pints of blood. However, he died without giving the police any details.

It was noted that he had some martial arts experience and thought that he would have put up a struggle. He was found unconscious in Scotland Road. He had suffered a fractured skull and most of the bones in his face were also fractured.

He had been out to the Mardi Gras club in Bold Street in Liverpool city centre earlier in the night and the police later went there in July 1988 to ask revellers whether they had been in the club the night Ronald Carmagnole had been there and whether they had seen anything.

The 41-year-old man had been arrested by the police in 2006 after a member of the public, said to have been an old schoolmate, called the police with information stating that he had witnessed the attack. The man had been living in Lancaster Walk, Kirkdale, Vauxhall at the time of the murder which was not far from the scene of the crime.

However, he had originally been questioned by the police a week after the murder in 1987 when he had come forward to say that he had had a fight with the man that they had been questioning at the time in regard to Ronald Carmagnole 's murder and who they charged. The murder charge against the other man was later dropped.

The police had reopened the case in 2001 and spent four years working with new DNA evidence. They said that they thought that his murder had been the result of a case of mistaken identity.

During the review the police went through over 600 witness statements that had been collected shortly after the murder.

The police also visited public houses along Scotland Road in the hunt for clues.

It was thought that the police had known at an early stage who the main suspects were but that they had quickly washed all their clothes and cut their fingernails making it hard to gather any evidence.

The 41-year-old man that was tried in 2006 said that he had been drinking in various pubs along Scotland Road on the night of the murder and had later had a fight with the other man that had been an initial suspect and who had been initially charged with Ronald Carmagnole's murder.

It was noted that Ronald Carmagnole had been with a woman shortly before he was murdered, but that she never came forward. She had been seen chatting with him about two hours before he was murdered. She was described as about 20 years old and brunette.

It was also reported that a lorry that passed the murder scene at the time of the attack blew his air horn as he passed, presumably because he saw something happening, but he never came forward.

Ronald Carmagnole was described as a talented jazz musician.

A brass plaque was later installed near the spot where Ronald Carmagnole was murdered.