Murder accused ‘said he’d done something stupid’
A MAN accused of murder told his mother that he had “done something stupid”, a court has heard.
Conlan Dunnion, Euan Peters, and Perrie Dunwell are charged with conspiring to rob Shafiul Islam in Newport on November 14, 2019, and murdering him.
It is claimed Peters used a Kopparberg bottle to hit Mr Islam over the head three times, causing a “devastating brain injury” from which he never regained consciousness. He died six days later in hospital.
A trial at Newport Crown Court heard Dunnion was accused of letting Peters into Mr Islam’s flat in Tewkesbury Walk and Dunwell drove them away from the scene having dropped Peters at the flat.
Dunnion, 23, of Maesglas Avenue, Newport; Peters, 42, of Dros-YMorfa, Rumney, Cardiff; and Dunwell, 33, of Cold Mill Road, Newport, all deny murder. Peters has admitted a charge of conspiracy to commit robbery but his two co-defendants deny that charge.
The court previously heard Mr Islam was discovered by neighbours in a cubby hole in his flat. He was unconscious and covered in blood.
Yesterday, Dunnion’s mother, Lucy Pyle, gave evidence about conversations involving her son following the fatal attack on Mr Islam.
Ms Pyle said Dunnion called her on November 16, 2019, and appeared “drunk” and “not himself”.
She said: “He said he had done something stupid and got involved in something. He said ‘I am the one that had to fit him up.’”
When asked by prosecutor Mark Wyeth QC if she knew who her son was referring to, the witness said she didn’t.
Ms Pyle said the following day she became aware someone “had been hurt” in Newport and asked Dunnion if he was involved.
She said: “He said he didn’t want to talk about it. He said he didn’t want to involve me in anything and it was nothing to do with him.”
Later that same day, the witness heard Dunnion talking on the telephone and sent a WhatsApp message to her partner, Daniel Fallon.
The message said: “I don’t know what’s happened but I can hear him on the phone in his bedroom saying what has gone on about this Chilly.
“He was saying last night he was the one who set it up, that he had to set it up.
“I can hear him on the phone now. He said ‘F ****** hell, if he dies like we’re looking at murder. I am the one who f ****** set it up so they could go in there. Oh my god alive.’”
In cross-examination of Ms Pyle, Dunnion’s barrister, Caroline Rees QC, put it to the witness she may not have been 100% accurate in her recollections of her conversation with her client and she may not have been paying full attention to what he had said.
She added: “Do you accept that is possible and what is in your statement may not be 100% accurate?” Ms Pyle said: “Yes.”
The barrister also said: “Is it the case [Dunnion] might have said ‘I might look like the one who set it up’?”
Ms Pyle said: “Yes.”
The trial continues.