Charlie Myatt successfully prosecutes defendant charged with murder of inmate

Background

The case involved a physical assault by punching of a prisoner in his cell in HMP Peterborough over an £80 spice debt. On the first day of trial the defendant pleaded guilty to unlawful act manslaughter, dropping his initial defence of self-defence. The sole issue for the jury therefore became whether he intended to cause really serious harm when he assaulted his fellow prisoner. Charlie Myatt was instructed on behalf of the Crown.

The Prosecution Case

CCTV into the cell from outside showed the defendant lash out at the victim, punching him to the temple up to three times. As a result the victim fell onto his bed and outside the view of the CCTV. Thereafter eyewitnesses described an unspecified number of further punches to the head and body before the defendant left the cell and the scene. Other prisoners sought assistance from a Prison Officer.  In interview the defendant initially claimed that the deceased had punched him first and that his response had been in self-defence. By trial he had resiled from that account, claiming instead that the victim had spat at him and that he had then “seen red”. His reaction had been on the spur of the moment. 

The combined evidence from the Crown’s pathologist and neurologist was that the victim had suffered three clear and separate blows to the left side of his jaw/head. One of these blows had caused a sudden, violent hyperextension of the neck which in turn put such an excessive strain on the vessels at the base of the brain that his intracranial vertebral artery had ruptured causing traumatic basal subarachnoid haemorrhage leading to unconsciousness and rapid cardiorespiratory arrest. In total there were at least five punches to the head and three to the upper torso. Other injuries being as likely from a fall as from a blow.

The Defence Case

The defendant stated that he had gone into the victim’s cell intending only to discuss a debt owed. He claimed that the victim had spat at him and insulted his mother. He accepted this made him “see red” and that he struck the victim to the same area of the head three times, knocking him unconscious onto his bed. He denied any further blows. He had subsequently panicked, tried to bring the victim round by squeezing his hand and slapping his face before leaving the cell.

The Issue

The Crown accepted that the issue was whether the defendant had an intention to cause really serious harm (not an intention to kill). Whilst there was no evidence that the defendant had gone to the cell with that intention, that by repeatedly assaulting the victim even after he had been knocked unconscious it was reasonable to infer that the defendant intended to do the victim really serious harm. The Crown further relied upon bad character evidence, introduced after successful legal argument, that the defendant had 18 months previously assaulted an unknown male in Wisbech town centre by repeatedly punching him to the head causing his bottom lip to become partially severed and extensive bruising to his lower face. After the assault the defendant had messaged a friend admitting that he had badly assaulted someone and thought he may have killed him. This, the Crown argued, showed that the defendant was acutely aware that assaulting individuals by repeated punches to the head ran the risk of causing at least serious harm; this awareness being relevant to his state of mind when he employed the same method of assault in the instant case.

Verdict and Conclusion

After almost 13 hours of deliberations the jury returned a 10:2 majority verdict of guilty of murder. The case was unusual in that the most common outcome for cases where death occurs from a punch is manslaughter. In this case the relevance of the number of blows and the defendant’s previous conviction were crucial in securing the verdict of murder.

About the Barrister

Charlie Myatt was called to the Bar in 1993. He is regularly instructed to prosecute murder as both sole and leading counsel. He is also regularly instructed to prosecute and defend in sexual allegations of the most serious kind.

To instruct Charlie, please contact his clerks, Steve McCarthy or Amie Harris on 020 7404 1881.