Jailed for life – the Manchester man guilty of attempted murder, rape and threats to kill

On the night of Friday 28 July 2023, two women, one whom was known to Brock, were enjoying a night out and had gone back to one of their houses in the early hours with two men they met on Saturday 29 July 2023.

A few hours later, one of the women had received a Facebook friend request off someone calling themselves ‘Mike David’. They suspected this to be Michael Brock.

Brock had a restraining order against one of the women and one of the conditions was not to make or attempt to make contact with her.

Just after 6am on Saturday morning, Brock was seen on CCTV on Moston Lane heading to the location where he knew one of the women lived and he entered the property where the group had stayed overnight.

Brock took with him a rucksack, which had a knife, a hammer, a foldable saw, a lighter and accelerant-soaked rags inside. Through the investigation, detectives uncovered that this was taken to the property to attempt to kill one of the women.

On entering the property and seeing two other men in there, Brock launched a vicious attack on the men in the kitchen. They both sustained serious and life-threatening knife injuries. One of the men also suffered a fractured skull and spent a considerable amount of time recovering in hospital.

The two women managed to escape from the property before they ran barefoot to Harpurhey Police Station to report the attack, and were helped by members of the public on the way to the station, who then rang 999.

Whilst officers were deployed to speak to the two women near the station, another team of officers were deployed to the property. They found Brock restrained by the two male victims, who were covered in blood.

Brock was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder by officers at the scene and was taken into custody to be questioned by detectives. A subsequent search of Brock’s home address in Moston found a number of knives, a glass bottle of Propan alcohol and a petrol cannister and detectives believe that these items were a clear indication of Brock’s elaborate and organised plan to kill one of the woman that morning.

At the same time, one of the women was also spoken to by officers at the station and she disclosed to them that Brock had raped her nearly three years ago.

Following a comprehensive investigation, Brock was found guilty of the attempt murder of both the male victims as well as the attempt murder and rape of the woman, who was later found to be the intended target of his actions on the 29 July 2023.

Detective Inspector Natasha Feerick of City of Manchester CID said:

We strongly believe that Brock contacted the woman and arrived at her house in a meticulously planned and callous attempt to kill her, his plan failed when he was greeted with more people in the property than he expected.

He launched a vicious and sustained attack on the two men who both received serious injuries as a result of Brock’s aggressive behaviour and now have to suffer with the consequences of his actions for life, he has also left the two women involved with mental scars of what happened that morning, and they will all never be the same again.

It is a testament to the team in our CID who investigated Brock’s actions and the hard work of the officers and staff involved which has meant that Brock will spent a large amount of time behind bars to think of the impact he has had.

We would also like to commend the bravery of the woman who was subjected to rape by Brock and thank her for supporting this very difficult case through to conclusion.

We welcome today’s result and hope that it will go some way to allowing those people who have been affected by Brock’s actions to come to terms with what has happened to them and to heal from the horrific experience they have endured.