A MURDER suspect said a beloved father was "murdered for a sausage" to detectives after handing himself into Colchester police station more than 7,000 days after he was last seen.
Michael Donnelly, 73, is accused of stabbing Grant Byrom, 30, to death in Forest Road, Colchester, on Boxing Day 1998.
It is alleged Donnelly was angry that Mr Byrom had been in an altercation with his friend Mark Venner at the Clarendon pub earlier in the day, leaving Mr Venner with a cut face, and stabbed him as revenge.
Donnlely, now of Bromley Road, Colchester said Mr Byrom had grabbed the broken arm of a man who had tried to take buffet food laid on for football players which led to the scuffle which saw Mr Venner get cut.
But Donnelly, said somebody else killed Mr Byrom and that he knows who.
He denies murder.
Donnelly had been on the run for more than 20 years before arriving at Colchester Police Station last June.
This is what he told detectives in his first interview after returning from Thailand.
Grant Byrom
On why he came back:
"Where I was living, I could not afford to get sick.
"I am sort of running out of money - simple as that really.
"I came back about a month ago and have just been seeing people - my children, grandchildren.
"I wanted to see them all first before I got handcuffed.
"I came back to get this all cleared up.
"The reason I left was because I was being accused of something I didn't do.
"To prove myself I would have had to name some names."
He later added: "I broke my foot last year and it cost money.
"If something serious goes wrong I am better off being in England.
"I have got a son who used to come and visit me in Thailand - he has been backwards and forwards.
"I didn't come back to confess to something I didn't do.
"With my form, I was looking at a ten-stretch."
Mourners at Grant Byrom's funeral
On why he ran:
"One of the girls came back to the flat and said I had been accused of stabbing Granny.
"She had come past the ambulance and heard his friend saying I had done it to him.
"I immediately left Colchester.
"I am not going to tell you a lot of names - I don't want to bring trouble to them 20 years later.
"There are circumstances I didn't know about them that I know about now.
"I thought I was going to spend 18 months on remand trying to prove my innocence and I was not prepared to do that."
He later added: "Lucy [his then girlfriend] was with me for the first couple of years.
"She got pregnant and I sent her home.
"I could not look after her and the baby while being on my toes.
"It was better for the kid.
On his friend Mark Venner's injury:
"It was just a scratch really - not the sort of thing that was severe.
"It should have just smoothed over after Christmas when they were sober again.
"Basically, the bottom line is he got murdered for a sausage.
"The lad that took the sausage was not playing because he had a broken arm.
"He [Grant Byrom] grabbed his arm and said: 'You didn't play.'
"I was having a party that night and his [Mark's] girlfriend came to me and said he was in hospital.
"I went to see him and saw it wasn't that serious - definitely not worth killing someone over.
"I thought he was a bit of a wimp being in hospital with it."
On seeing Grant Byrom that night:
"I went to the garden because somebody wanted a plug or something and Granny was there with all his mates.
"Afterwards, I had a cracked rib and a lump on my head.
"I have no recollection of what happened.
"There was Granny and three or four other lads and I told them they had to go because it would kick off again.
"They all attacked me.
"A couple of the boys found me.
"Then one of the girls came and said I was wanted and that was all I needed to hear."
He later said he got a call later to say Mr Byrom was dead.
On who killed Mr Byrom:
“I can say I do know now, but I didn’t know at the time,” he said.
“I have been told since.
“I didn’t do it.
“You know my background and telling you is not the sort of thing I am going to do.
“I am not going to put people away to save me.
"I know the whole story but I am not going to tell you the whole story.
"I am at that age where I have had my life - I am at the end of my life.
"It is always going to be a mystery who did it.
"If I have got to take the fall for it I will.
"I am never going to tell you what I know."
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