Murder defendant denies friend helped him hide after fatal Lichfield bar punch
Billy Allison, 36, is on trial for killing pub owner Matthew O'Gara with a single punch in Lichfield. He denies a friend helped him evade police after the attack.
Allison denies evasion plan after fatal punch at Lichfield bar
Billy Allison, 36, denied in court on Wednesday that a companion helped him evade police in the hours following a fatal attack on a pub owner in Lichfield, bbc.co.uk reports.
Stafford Crown Court heard that Allison punched Matthew O'Gara, 44, in the neck on the dancefloor of the Ricco and Loren bar on the night of 24 May. O'Gara later died from his injuries. A second man, Adam Cooper, 62, was also struck and suffered a fractured eye socket and nose.
Prosecutors described the blow to O'Gara as a "very, very hard" punch delivered with the "stance and skill of an experienced fighter."
Allison, of Cropthorne Road in Shirley, Solihull, denies murder and section 18 grievous bodily harm with intent against Cooper. He admits the alternative charges of manslaughter and inflicting grievous bodily harm.
Shirt swap caught on camera
After the attack, while O'Gara lay unconscious and was being attended to by bar staff, Allison was seen leaving through a back gate. He had been out that evening with his girlfriend Charlotte Dean, along with Ryan Bridge, Ben Cullen, and their respective partners.
CCTV footage shown to jurors captured Allison and Cullen swapping shirts in the street shortly after leaving the bar, with Allison covering his face at one point. The pair were then seen in parkland on the edge of the city centre at around 01:00 before appearing at the Cathedral Hotel in Beacon Street, where Cullen was staying.
Allison had originally been due to stay at a separate B&B elsewhere in Lichfield. When police arrested him in Cullen's hotel room, he was still wearing Cullen's shirt.
"I was scared"
Prosecution counsel Timothy Hannam KC pressed Allison in the dock on whether the move to the hotel had been a deliberate plan to conceal himself. Allison denied this. He also denied being friends with Cullen, describing him as an acquaintance he knew through Bridge.
When asked why Cullen had followed him out of the bar after the fatal incident, Allison said: "That's a question you would have to ask him, I don't know why he followed me."
On the shirt swap, Allison acknowledged: "I think I was trying to hide my identity," though he said he could not recall what was said between the two men beforehand. He added that he had attempted to find his own accommodation but went to Cullen's hotel because he was too drunk to locate it and "gave up."
Hannam then questioned why Allison had not contacted police himself after leaving the bar. Allison replied: "I was scared… I'd been informed Mr O'Gara was in a pretty bad condition and I was scared and upset."
Hannam put it to him: "You weren't concerned about him, you were concerned about you, weren't you?"
Allison responded: "I was very concerned… I was also concerned about my family and how it would affect them, yes."
The trial continues at Stafford Crown Court.
Source: Google News UK — Crime (en)