A man has been found guilty of the murder of a father-of-three who was stabbed to death in the food hall of an #Essex shopping centre.

Michael Ugwa, 29, ( 2pic) was killed at #Lakeside Shopping Centre in #Thurrock on April 28 last year after complimenting a woman, a trial at #Basildon Crown Court was told.

On Monday, 23-year-old Muhammad Khan ( 1st pic ) was found guilty of Mr Ugwa’s murder and of affray, #Essex Police said.

The force said jurors cleared a second man, Brandon Lutchmunsing, 20, of murder.

Lutchmunsing was found guilty of manslaughter and of affray, police said.

Karim Khalil KC, prosecuting, said Khan and Lutchmunsing had cornered Mr Ugwa before Khan stabbed him in the chest.

Mr Ugwa, from #Rainham, east London, died of “catastrophic” blood loss at the scene as the two men fled.

Khan, of #Ilford, east London, and Lutchmunsing, of #Dagenham, east London, had denied the charges against them.

Jurors were told how an argument broke out after Mr Ugwa made comments towards Lutchmunsing’s girlfriend, Shannon Weston.

Khan is said to have brandished a knife before he and Lutchmunsing stalked Mr Ugwa through the shopping centre food hall.

Mr Khalil described the “brutal attack of two on one” in which the men trapped Mr Ugwa in a “pincer movement”.

Footage played at court showed Mr Ugwa holding up a chair in a bid to defend himself before throwing it at Lutchmunsing.

Khan then stabbed Mr Ugwa in a “single and deadly” blow before fleeing with Lutchmunsing in Weston’s red Audi, Mr Khalil said.

Weston was accused of driving Khan and Lutchmunsing away from the shopping centre, and of helping her then-boyfriend to evade police between April 28 and May 4.

The 21-year-old, of Canewdon, Essex, was found guilty of three counts of assisting an offender, which she had denied, police said.