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A 24-year-old man was bludgeoned to death with a horseshoe after arguing with a group of people playing a boombox on an Elizabeth Line train from London.
Thomas Parker, his brother 27-year-old Craig Parker, and two friends got into an argument with 42-year-old Kirkpatrick Virgo and two others while taking the train from London, where they had been watching a football match, back home to Reading.
Craig Parker had asked one of Virgo’s companions to turn down music said to be blaring loudly from a boombox, leading to a verbal altercation in which Virgo allegedly demanded “Do you want to die tonight?” and called the elder Parker a “batty boy” — a slur for a homosexual male.
Off-duty police officers intervened to deescalate the argument between the groups on two separate occasions, but left the train believing the matter was settled — despite one of Virgo’s group having allegedly warned the Parkers: “Watch what happens when you get off this train.
