Two men have been jailed for life for the murder of footballer Cody Fisher, who was stabbed to death inside a Birmingham nightclub on Boxing Day in 2022.

Remy Gordon, 23, and Kami Carpenter, 22, had blamed each other for stabbing the 23-year-old former Birmingham City academy player, who died at the scene from a chest wound, but both were found guilty of his murder last month while a third defendant, Reegan Anderson, 19, was cleared.

Gordon and Anderson were also found guilty of affray in relation to a "targeted" attack on a friend of Fisher’s immediately after the stabbing, which saw him chased across the dancefloor and kicked as he lay "defenceless" on the ground.

A 10-week trial was told Fisher was attacked with a weapon smuggled through security into Digbeth’s Crane nightclub before a pre-planned "act of retribution" for a minor incident two days earlier.

Kami Carpenter and Remy Gordon have been sentenced to life

Fisher’s girlfriend Jessica Chatwin, who was with him the night he was killed said: "Seconds before that moment I remember turning around and looking at Cody behind me and he gave me the biggest smile full of love and happiness – now I question if that was his goodbye.

"The next time I turned around he was surrounded by those attacking him and I watched him fall to the floor, then reality struck that he had been fatally stabbed.

"My life stopped that day, I live each day with enormous pain, loneliness and sadness. I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with Cody. Now I have to face the world without his love and guidance, something he always showed me while we were together.

"He was my strength in every situation and now I have to face it all alone."

Cody Fisher was killed on Boxing Day in 2022

Paying tribute to her son, Fisher's mother Tracey said: "Since this horrendous day I feel that my own life has ended, it is as though I too was stabbed straight through the heart.

"I have seen myself go from the happiest, outgoing person, to fighting the hell out of just getting through each and every horrendous, never-ending day in the abhorrent knowledge that my youngest son, my best friend, is never coming home to sleep in his bedroom, the room that I still cannot enter even to this day.

“I instilled in Cody from a young boy that he must stick up for himself and don’t let anyone bully him. I told him that sad, weak individuals do exist in our society and they ruin lives – how ironic and saddening that this is exactly what happened to Cody.

“He was only doing what his mum told him to do and I think about this every day, but you never expect your child to be murdered."

Court artist sketch of Remy Gordon (left) and Kami Carpenter

Gordon sent messages on Snapchat to friends around 45 minutes after the initial incident, appealing for help to identify a photograph showing Fisher and threatening to "shank him up."

Fisher, a former Birmingham City academy member who also played for Stratford Town and Bromsgrove Sporting, died at the scene of the stabbing.

Disclosing what he described as "one of the appalling details of the case", Prosecutor Michael Duck KC said: "That weapon was recovered – it was recovered by medical staff when they came to treat him and it was still embedded in his chest as he lay on the ground."

Remy Gordon and Kami Carpenter were jailed at Birmingham Crown Court for life with a minimum term of 26 and 25 years respectively.