Murder verdict
MAN DUMPED EMPLOYEE IN SHALLOW GRAVE WHILE VICTIM WAS STILL ALIVE, COURT TOLD
A garage boss has been convicted of the murder of one of his workers who he dumped while still alive in a shallow grave.
A garage boss has been convicted of the murder of one of his workers who he dumped while still alive in a shallow grave.
Darren Bonner was found naked and unresponsive in a woodland hole, behind a drystone wall, on Shore Road, Northumberland, with irreversible brain damage that led to his death 16 days later.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Richard Spottiswood, who ran a garage business Mr Bonner worked at in South Shields, thought he had been “double crossed” by the 24-year-old, from Sunderland, and deliberately choked him during a family mini-break.
Spottiswood, 34, of Canterbury Way, Jarrow, denied murder but has been found guilty by a jury after 10 hours and 17 minutes deliberation, following a two-week trial.
Judge Stephen Ashurst will sentence Spottiswood, who remained expressionless and silent when the guilty verdict was delivered, at a later date but warned he faces life behind bars.
The judge told Spottiswood: “In light of the jury’s verdict, it will be for me, in due course, to sentence you to a term of life imprisonment.” set the minimum term Spottiswood must serve before he can apply for parole at the sentence hearing.
At an earlier trial, which collapsed at the half-way point, Spottiswood’s girlfriend Lucy Burn, 29, of Burns Close, South Shields, who had originally been jointly charged with Mr Bonner’s murder, was cleared over the killing.
She pleaded guilty to an offence of assisting an offender in relation to her having “taken various steps to tell lies in support of the defendant” while knowing he had committed an offence of murder.
She will be sentenced at the same hearing.
The court heard Mr Bonner’s badly injured body was found when a passer-by had heard “snoring and moanstone ing” as he walked past the undergrowth at Shore Road, near Cresswell Caravan Park, in Northumberland, in the early morning on July 10 last year and alerted the police.
Officers who arrived at the scene heard a similar sound and climbed concrete
- wall to investigate.
Prosecutor Tim Roberts told the court: “In the wood behind the wall they came upon a naked man, lying in an open, dug-out, shallow grave in the earth.
“He was curled up in the fetal position, moaning and shivering. Although he was actually breathing, he was unresponsive to the officers’ attempts to rouse him.”
The court heard Mr Bonner was taken to hospital, where he survived for 16 days, but never regained consciousness.
He died because his brain had been starved of blood and oxygen, which led to extensive brain damage, jurors heard.
Mr Bonner also had marks on his back, which Mr Roberts said were “at least 12 blows from a rodshaped weapon”.
Jurors have heard in the days before he was found inured Mr Bonner had told his ex-girlfriend he had fallen out with "Spotty", who he said was "going to do me in".
The woman told police Mr Bonner had worked for Spottiswood at his garage but the men also tended cannabis farms together.
The court heard on the weekend before he was found fatally injured, Mr Bonner had joined Spottiswood and Burn on a family holiday at Creswell Towers holiday park.
Prosecutors say he was dumped in the shallow grave, from the back of Spottiswood’s white van, shortly before he was found.
Spottiswood had claimed during his evidence that he and Mr Bonner had one to the remote site to bury firearms Mr. Bonner had been involved in dealing in. He said a disagreement flared and he he put him in a “20-second” headlock to calm him down. Mr Roberts said prosecutors reject the suggestion of self-defence outright. He told jurors: “He knew exactly what he was doing, there and then he caused the irreversible brain damage which led to death. “Mr Spottiswood, the prosecution contend, wasn’t acting in reasonable and necessary self-defence. He was deliberately choking the life from someone he trusted but had double crossed him.” Jurors found him guilty after more than ten hours eliberation. Detective Chief Inspector ndy Fairlamb, from Northmbria Police, said he was leased that a dangerous an has now been convicted. He said: “This has been a agic time for Darren Bonr’s family and my thoughts out to them. I absolutely ve to commend their bravy throughout this ordeal. “Even after Spottiswood mitted to choking Darren, has continued to go on and fend his actions claiming it s an accident. “The fact that Darren was ft in such a critical condin – barely breathing and ng in a shallow grave – ablutely shows how truly ld and despicable Spottisod is.”
‘He knew exactly what he was doing’ TIM ROBERTS, PROSECUTING