‘It looked like he just slapped him’
A MAN told a murder trial he thought his neighbour had been slapped around the face before realising he had been stabbed in the neck.
Father-of-one Mike Grimshaw, 34, died after being knifed on Royton Avenue in Sale Moor last July.
Tyrone Patrick, 32, denies murder and is currently on trial at Manchester Crown Court.
During the second day of the hearing, witness Stanislaw Gasiorowski told the jury he first thought his neighbour had been ‘slapped’ in the face during the incident on July 20.
He described seeing Mr Grimshaw grab at his throat after being struck before collapsing behind a car as three people ran away.
Mr Gasiorowski said he saw three people dressed in dark clothing near Mr Grimshaw.
“One of them in the middle, it looked like he punched him in the face with his right hand,” he told the court.
“It looked like he just slapped him across the face. Straight away Mike grabbed his throat.”
He told the court he then saw three people run from Royton Avenue towards Sale High School, followed by two others who gave chase.
When questioned by defence barrister Stephen Meadowcroft QC, Mr Gasiorowski said he believed it was the tallest of the three men who ‘punched’ the victim.
The court also heard from Simone Boon, who described how Mr Patrick arrived at her house on Royton Avenue with a friend on July 19.
In a written statement, she said she let the two men in as Mr Patrick could not get his uncle, her neighbour, to answer the door.
The defendant, who Ms Boon said she had spoken to only half a dozen times previously, and his friend stayed until the following morning, she said.
They left and returned in the afternoon when Mr Patrick ‘looked wild,’ as though he had ‘topped up’ on drugs, she said.
Ms Boon said Mr Patrick was agitated and refused to leave, only going when a friend of hers arrived.
Later that night Ms Boon said she saw flashing lights outside and police officers searched her home.
She later told police a 16-year-old boy had also been at her property.
Witness Sarah Meehan told the court Mr Patrick had arrived at her house with two other men at around 4pm on July 20. In a statement read to jurors, she described seeing Mr Patrick and his friend sniffing cocaine, which made her feel ‘on edge’ because she knew the defendant could ‘turn nasty.’
When she asked the men to leave Mr Patrick started to argue, Ms Meehan said. “Tyrone was off his head on coke,” she said.
She added: “He can be very intimidating and it’s not at all easy to say ‘get out of my house.’”
The men eventually left and Ms Meehan went to her boyfriend’s house, she told the court. She said she only learned about Mr Grimshaw’s death the following day after reading details online.
“I feel guilty about chucking him out that night because if I hadn’t things might have turned out differently,” she added.
Mr Patrick, of Haydock Close, Stretford, denies murder.
Proceeding