Mr Gardner was punched and kicked in the street Three men have been found guilty of murdering an IT worker on Halloween in a row over his girlfriend’s hat.
Ben Gardner, 30, was punched and kicked in Sutton, south London, in October 2009 after the hat was snatched.
Allanna Devine was also punched as Mr Gardner lay injured. The attack took place after Miss Devine asked for her hat back, the Old Bailey heard.
Daniel Ransom and Ross Collender, both 21, and Jordan Dixon, 18, of Carshalton, had denied murder.
Mr Gardner, who worked for insurance firm Legal & General, had been to a club with Miss Devine to celebrate her birthday.
In the early hours of the morning, Miss Devine was waiting for him outside a kebab shop when a group of men snatched a pirate’s hat and black wig she was wearing, the court heard.
They did not react to the provocation.
But later in the evening as they returned to Miss Devine’s home they saw the group loitering by the hat, the court heard.
When she asked for it back she was verbally abused.
Collender then “suddenly and unexpectedly” punched Mr Gardner in the face. He was then punched by Dixon, falling onto his back in the road.
Then Ransom kicked the “utterly defenceless” IT worker in the head.
It was described by witnesses as being like a “penalty kick” and Mr Gardner died on 1 November from “catastrophic brain damage”.
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