Two men go on trial for murder of teen in 2005
TWO men have gone on trial for the murder of a teenage dad-to-be after a witness came forward more than a decade after the death.
Paul Croft, 19, died in hospital a week after he was found injured in an alleyway in Salford in 2005.
A witness who had previously been too afraid to come forward will now give prosecution evidence, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Paul was attacked in a ginnel known as the Black Path next to the Lord Nelson pub in Pendlebury, on March 24, 2005.
The incident was sent to GMP’s Cold Case Unit last year.
The two defendants both deny murder. They are James Wilde, of Rake Lane, Swinton, who would have been 16 at the time, and Paul O’Neill, of Broomhall Road, Pendlebury, aged 23 at the time.
Opening the prosecution’s case, Paul Reid QC said a witness, Cassandra Cable, who had previously been ‘frightened’ and unwilling to give evidence would now attend court.
And a baseball bat recovered in grassland near to where Mr Croft was found was re-examined and subjected to DNA tests not available at the time, Mr Reid said.
This provided ‘strong support’ for the view that Mr Wilde’s DNA was on the bat, the court heard.
Mr Croft, whose partner gave birth to twin boys three months after he was attacked, was found after 8pm with blood pouring from the back of his head.
At 8.06pm, at the end of a phone call to his girlfriend, Kirsty McIntosh, he said: “Hang on, they are going to kick off with me.”
Mr Reid said Ms McIntosh could hear ‘loads of lads in the background,’ and shortly after the phone went dead.
In a 999 call from a member of the public, the operator was told: ‘There’s about 15 lads beating the c***’ out of someone.”
They added: “He’s not moving and they are kicking him in the face and everything.”
Mr Reid said two youths from a group, who had been congregating outside a nearby shop, ran at him. Their faces were covered by masks, and one was armed with a baseball bat and the other with a golf club, the court heard.
The prosecution say Ms Cable, who lived near a friend of the defendants, overheard conversations which prove their guilt.
Mr Reid said the jury could infer that Mr O’Neill ‘panicked,’ and that his girlfriend contacted the ambulance under the ‘pretence’ that he had been informed about the attack by a group of youths outside the shop.
Proceeding