Following the tragic death of police officer Neil Doyle in Liverpool last Friday, a professional soccer coach in the U.S. has been charged with murder and assault.
On Monday Christopher Spendlove was fired as the assistant coach of Oklahoma City Energy, which plays in the USL PRO, and the 30-year-old has appeared in an English court on Tuesday in his home city of Liverpool.
Spendlove and 28-year-old Andrew Taylor are accused of murdering off-duty officer Doyle in the city center of Liverpool, as it is alleged he was attacked in the early hours of Friday morning and a post-mortem examination found that Doyle died from a fatal bleed around the brain.
In a statement Oklahoma Energy FC said that Spendlove was dismissed “given the seriousness of the charges” as the former student at Oklahoma City University will await trial in the early summer and a preliminary hearing will be held on January 6, 2015 into the murder charges and also charges of unlawfully and maliciously wounding Michael Stephenson and Robert Marshall during the same incident.
Here’s is the statement from the Energy’s GM, Jason Hawkins, in full.