A teenager who stabbed to death a father who had confronted him for scaring children in a park has been found guilty of his murder.

Tieran Carmody, 19, was standing astride a bicycle smoking cannabis when he was approached by 35-year-old Max Richardson near Joyners Field in Harlow, Essex Police said.

Carmody had been loitering near to properties and a play park.

The force said Mr Richardson had asked Carmody why he was scaring children and Carmody lashed out at him, with a scuffle ensuing.

Carmody stabbed Mr Richardson – who by this point had his hands held up in a surrendering motion – once through the stomach with a long, bladed weapon that he had in his rucksack.

The defendant, of Harlow, fled the scene on his bike on August 21 last year and Mr Richardson died while on his way to hospital.

Carmody went on the run and was arrested six days later in Basildon.

Essex Police said Carmody denied murder but was found guilty by a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday.

Detective Chief Inspector Ashley Howard, of Essex Police’s Serious Crime Directorate, said Mr Richardson died in the “most cruel and needless fashion”.

“Max had everything ahead of him,” DCI Howard said.

“Instead, he was killed for simply caring about the safety of his neighbourhood.

“He died because Carmody chose to carry a large knife with him, a knife Carmody stated he carried for safety, however, it was this weapon he used to murder a stranger.

“Carmody murdered Max for no other reason than he felt affronted that someone had dared to stand up to him.”

Carmody is due to be sentenced at the same court on a date yet to be set.

Another man, 19-year-old Harrison Barnett, helped Carmody while he was on the run and he was found guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court of perverting the course of justice, Essex Police said.

Barnett, of Basildon, will also be sentenced at a later date.

Mr Richardson’s family said in a statement released through police that he was the “life and soul of us all”.

They said he will “always be in the hearts of his family and his children” and “words cannot describe the pain we are all feeling right now”.