A Shropshire man jailed for murdering a pub-goer he thought was flirting with his girlfriend has had his appeal against the conviction dismissed.

Shaun William Healy, 48, of Hollybush Road, Bridgnorth, was jailed for life for stabbing Jonathan Styles to death in the Friar’s pub in the town in March 2001.

Mr Styles, who was known as Johnny Rockstar because of his flamboyant style, suffered a wound to his neck so deep that it pierced his tongue. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

At his trial at Birmingham Crown Court in July 2002, Healy admitted going home to get a knife after seeing Mr Styles, of Waterloo Terrace, Bridgnorth, with his girlfriend, but denied deliberately stabbing his victim.

Although he was handed a mandatory life sentence, he launched an appeal in July this year after his defence counsel criticised his trial barrister and argued the conviction was “unsafe”.

He was granted permission to contest the conviction, but at the Court of Appeal in London yesterday Mr Justice Simon said there was “no substance” in any of his grounds of appeal after Healy’s barrister, Lord Thomas of Gressford QC, criticised the way the judge and Healy’s trial barrister conducted the case.

Mr Justice Simon, who was sitting with Sir Anthony May and Mr Justice Aikens, said he was satisfied the conviction was safe.

“It is inescapable that Healy was holding the knife at the time when the deceased suffered the wound and the only possible arguable criticism of counsel is that Healy’s case was not run so as to include the possibility that the deceased had run forward on to the knife,” he said.

“If this were a sustainable criticism, and we do not think it is, the question for this court is whether Healy’s conviction, for that reason, is unsafe.

“We are quite clear that the conviction would not be unsafe.

“It would have been fanciful to suggest that a wound of the depth and direction of this one occurred by accident when the deceased may have lunged forward.

“We are satisfied that the conviction is safe and, in so far as Lord Thomas suggests that Healy did not have a fair trial, we are not persuaded.”

By Jonathan Wood