Long Bennington man died after being punched during family feud, Lincoln Crown Court murder trial told
A father died after being punched during a family feud, a murder trial was told this week.
Dean Gray, 46, died in hospital days after the incident at Fairfield Motors on Main Road, Long Bennington, on August 11 last year.
Terence Hardy, of Main Road, Long Bennington, denies murder. Stuart Gray senior, also of Main Road, Long Bennington, denies manslaughter and possession of an offensive weapon.
Frederick Steven Gray, known as Steven — brother of defendant Stuart Gray Snr — gave evidence on his son Dean’s death and told the court he was alerted to an incident when he heard his grandchildren screaming, and saw Stuart Gray Snr.
“In his left hand he had a claw hammer and in his right a wooden stick which looked about a metre long and dark in colour, with bobbly bits on it or something like that,” he said.
Steven said he went to fetch a rounders bat to try to pass his brother, but Stuart junior joined Stuart Snr and Hardy and had an axe in his hands.
“As soon as I got to the gate, he raised the axe at me because it was my intention to get through,” said Steven.
Hardy’s defence team said there had been a previous incident when Hardy had been rodding the septic tank on Steven’s property, and Steven was aggrieved to see him on his land.
The barrister suggested the second fight happened because Dean had issued a ‘challenge’ to Hardy, as known in Traveller culture.
Steven denied his family had a history of being Romany Travellers.
Two witnesses said they saw Hardy throwing punches at Dean, who had his top off and his arms down by his side.
The first witness said they saw a man punching another man on the grass verge outside Fairfield Motors.
One said when they drove past and looked in their rear view, that Dean had fallen to the ground and banged his head on the edge of the road.
The other said another man had an axe-like instrument in his right hand — it was almost medieval, the witness said.
“Once he crossed the road he held it with both hands and went to swing it,” they said.
The court was shown footage of Dean walking into Grantham Hospital following the fight with blood coming from the back of his head.
The court was told his condition worsened rapidly and he couldn’t breathe unassisted. He was transferred to the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, where he died on August 13.
Pathologist Dr Stuart Hamilton carried out the post mortem and found multiple injuries, including the 6cm linear laceration to the back of his head.
“It was slightly ragged at the edges,” he said. “It was deep to the bone and the skull beneath that was fractured.
“The cause of death was a head injury. There was what’s called a subdural haemorrhage — bleeding between the fibrous lining of skull and outside of the brain. That had compressed the brain and in addition to that, the brain had begun to swell, which is also a problem because the skull is a fixed volume.
“There was also bruising in the brain itself, a specific distribution of bruising referred to as contrecoup bruising, which occurs when a head is moving at speed and strikes and object quickly.
“That tells pathologists that this has occurred by Mr Gray falling backward and striking his head on something.”
Dr Hamilton said Dean was able to pick himself up despite the serious injury because he was in a ‘lucid interval’ before matters began to dramatically deteriorate, which is very common with head injuries.
“The ‘lucid interval’ apparently not showing evidence of a head injury," he said. "But at a later date deteriorate and, in Mr Gray’s case, dies."
The court then heard an audio recording of Hardy’s third interview at Lincoln Police Station, where he said he would tell police everything as advised by his solicitor, having gone no comment in the first two.
He said Dean challenged him to a fight after the septic tank incident and that both himself and his father-in-law Stuart Snr got into a blue car to drive to Steven's yard.
Hardy said in his statement: "I was throwing punches and as we was fighting Mr Gray went down a few times and we still carried on and I hit him and he stumbled and banged his head.
"I stood back as when a fighter goes down, the other opponent wins. It's about cuts and bruises, not killing someone. I then walked back home, in my eyes I was finished. I've always seen these fights from a young age and you expect some cuts and bruises everywhere, not to kill someone.
"I'm sorry to say it has happened, I'm a family man myself.
"It's like a family feud situation. Dean said we have got to fight, and if I don't accept that challenge then I'm classed as a coward — I'm not being branded a coward for the rest of my life.
"If I could give everything I own, I would give it. I didn't want this to happen, I didn't even shout at him.
"Five minutes after, I walked outside near the vehicle and seen Dean driving off in the Jeep to lick his wounds."
Giving evidence in court, Hardy denied the suggestion that Dean had neither challenged him to a fight or laid a finger on him when he returned to the yard.
He further denied he had returned with thoughts full of revenge.
Hardy also denied that he had invented being punched off CCTV camera and further assaulted by Stuart Snr with the pole during the earlier altercation.
Asked by police in a third interview why he didn't try to stop the fight, Stuart Snr said: "How can I get between two men like that?
"I said 'why don't you leave it alone' when he [Dean] was taking his top off, I said there was no need for it."
Asked why he answered no comment in the first two interviews, Hardy said he was advised to, and only answered in full when he found out Dean had died.
"The poor bloke had died so," he said. "I've never been in trouble in my life and I've never used a solicitor before so I went on the advice."
The trial at Lincoln Crown Court continues.
