MANSFIELD, UK – An 18-year-old new father was brutally stabbed to death in what police have described as a senseless and tragic attack, just two weeks after welcoming his first child into the world and on the very day he was set to move away to begin a new life with his young family.
Liam Gray, described by his grieving mother Joanne as a “bubbly” and caring individual who loved to make people laugh, suffered a fatal single stab wound to the heart during a violent altercation at his grandfather’s home on Gladstone Street on the afternoon of 2nd August 2019.
The attack occurred as Liam, his grandfather John affectionately known as “Pops,” and two friends — Reegan “Ree” and 17-year-old Jonathan Treadgold — were spending what was meant to be a final afternoon together before Liam relocated to Birmingham with his partner and their newborn daughter, who had been born just over a fortnight earlier on 18th July.
Friends and family told investigators that Liam had shown remarkable empathy and care for Treadgold, having taken him under his wing, aware of their friend’s troubled background, which included involvement with social services due to family 𝒹𝓇𝓊𝑔 use and domestic violence.
Emergency services received a frantic 999 call from the address at approximately 3:15 pm, with a exchange that captured the sheer panic of the moment. The operator can be heard saying: “Ambulance, is the patient breathing?” and a frantic voice replying: “He’s been stabbed in the chest.”
The caller continuing: “He is barely breathing. He is awake. Right, okay,” before quickly identifying the attacker as “Jon Treadgold.”
Police body camera footage captured the harrowing moments as authorities arrived at the scene to find Liam collapsed on the floor, his distraught grandfather and friend Ree attempting to stem the severe bleeding with towels. They had tried to maintain his life by cutting open his chest and performing emergency heart massage as he fought for survival.
The first path taken to save Liam was to transport him to the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, a decision took priority over an air ambulance so that medical staff could continue treating him on the ground. However, despite undergoing immediate open-heart surgery, Liam could not be saved. He was pronounced dead sixteen minutes after emergency services first attempted to treat him.
His mother Joanne was allowed to see her son on the way to the hospital. She recalls them saying: “I just told him that I loved him, and I told him that it was that I cared for him.” He was loved by so many people, but this was not enough.
His sister Paige described the moment the doctor entered the waiting room: “I remember the doctor coming in with two nurses and I just looked at his face, and I knew he was gone,” she said. “I ran out of the room screaming and hyperventilating.” Joann also said she felt the devastating truth instantly, her heart “crumbling into a million pieces, and she hasn’t been able to pick them up since.”
After 26 minutes on the scene and 90 minutes of fighting for his life at the hospital, Liam was declared dead, leaving a community despondent. The subsequent investigation took a significant turn. Treadgold, who had fled the scene, was can shot after being reported to police hiding on flat in local sandwich shop area where he informed to be hiding over the wall.
Police arrested Treadgold at 3:33 pm on suspicion of Section 18 wounding inflicting serious bodily harm. A breath test taken by him hours later revealed he was intoxicated — three times above the legal driving limit, highlighting his state of intoxication. In a concerning claim, he told officers he acted in self-defense, claiming Liam had instigated the row, and collapsed aimed the weapon in his direction.
But evidence turned this defence apart. CCTV footage showed the three friends walking calmly through a park. They were never seen giving the impression that they were in a deadly state.
Yet, the other part of the story shown that at the exact point of the attack, CCTV showed him fleeing the property just seconds after the incident.
The pathologist’s findings determined there were no defensive wounds found in Liam’s body. And the blow was of a single, hard-thrust motion, not a defensive, flailing swing. Treadgold had claimed Liam had bullied and tormented him for years cutting him lines, but all later revealed to he made the mark upon his own body.
A police investigation uncovered that Treadgold admitted his only motivation was jealousy. Liam was moving away to also starting a fresh life with his family, leaving his troubled life behind, and that Treadgold could not bear that, in and in a fit of intoxication and rage, had acted to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁.
At the same time, a grass discipline case was not. In the four-minute period concerning known fact: They bought liquor, they drank in the garden. Then there was a weird spark over a message, and they walked to the pub.
After the altercation, Liam turned back to calm things down. And in that bloody, and fate familiar.
Treadgold was arrested and held on remand. Due to his age, he was a child at the time, but he was later sentenced as an adult, his name finally becoming open after an application from the local newspaper Judicary revoked his anonymity.
The following year, in November 2019, he pleaded not guilty to murder. Liam’s family were horrified, with Joanne calling his claim a “disgrace” dangling on.
He was described in court as out of control and contemptuous.
The trial at the Nottingham Archeological Court heard evidence across weeks. Treadgold said he was remorseful but would not take the stand. The family and his mother suggested he was not remorseful whatsoever, pointing out that he remained stone-faced and offered no explanation as to why he had killed the person he called his friend.
On 7th February 2020, exactly a year and 6, months old, the jury returned a unanimous verdict: guilty to murder. After the verdict, Treadgold remained emotionless, mumbling something, angering the family, and the public order, that it was the two. They were cheers in the public gallery as they brought a sense of relief before the entire.
Judge Gregory Dixson Sermon, the judge said that it was “not a case of fear but of anger, drink, and resentment.” He imposed a minimum term where he must serve at least 16 years, stating that the Parole Board will decide if he is safe to release, meaning he can be detained any longer than that.
The impact of Liam’s death left that community not only in the final days of his life, a community that was flooded with flowers, tributes, and cards in Gladstonevile. Police said it was clear how loved and popular he was. Known for his loyalty and sense of loyalty, this tragedy defined need less for nothing.
On 18th August, 2019, a GoFundMe page was set up to help pay for funeral costs, and to support his new-born daughter, along with donations moving to a charity against knife crime. His outdoor funeral held them. Hundreds of mourners lined the street as his late, liver-with stole pride in the home, walked to the Church.
His father pedaphysical and bodies put around them, and las t shirts behind. Pops, who with his own broken heart, was walking past confessed: “Liam, I miss you so much. I tried so hard to help, and I think about that day every day.
My heroic efforts were not enough and I am so sorry.” He continued to speak of his hope “that his boy is with the angels. ’s” as the letter he wanted to reach his grandson.
As to its b the funeral, the Reverence spoke of the impact, not the tragic responsibility of his call, and to all the memories of him, they carried him.
The heart wrenching murder is mourned.
The legacy of Liam’s life, is his young daughter, who will grow up in the warmth of a family, and will be told every day about the father who was due to be her first and biggest Mom in the world.
A final quote from his mother: “There are so many things he will never see. He didn’t get to college, learn to ride a car, get a permanent job, take, scream his. He’ll never get to see his baby girl take her first steps or have her forever.
And we as a family will never have the joy of watching him do it.”
