Thug who killed carpet fitter has appeal bid rejected
EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS MADE CASE AGAINST KILLER ‘VERY STRONG’
A KILLER serving life in jail for the brutal murder of a Stratford-upon-Avon carpet fitter has failed in a Court of Appeal bid to clear his name.
Neil John Potter, 38, was caged in May last year for the savage murder of 36-year-old Tristram Wallace in the town in June 2015.
Mr Wallace was attacked at a junction in Birmingham Road, punched, kicked and stamped on by a gang of people.
Potter and accomplice Peter Mallon were both convicted of the murder, while two others were jailed for manslaughter over the death.
But Potter, of Clopton Road, Stratford, continues to claim he was merely protecting himself during the incident.
He launched an appeal and on Friday the case reached court, only to be rejected in a 10-minute hearing in London.
Lord Justice Hamblen said Potter’s complaints about his trial at Birmingham Crown Court had “no merit whatsoever”.
“There were a very large number of eye witnesses,” he continued in his judgment.
“The Crown called 41 witnesses in person, including police officers and medical professionals.
“The jury had the benefit of very many eyewitness accounts as to what occurred”. The court heard Potter had compiled his own grounds of appeal, declaring in his final document: “I’m no murderer”. He criticised the competence of his trial lawyers, inconsistencies in the evidence, and the judge for an “unbalanced” summing up. But the appeal judge, sitting today with Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb and Judge John Wait QC, said the complaints were not even arguable. The prosecution case against Potter had been “very strong”, he added, before rejecting his bid to appeal. Potter will serve a minimum of 18 years behind bars before he will be eligible to apply for release on licence.