Man accused of murder blames friend for attack
Reporter A MAN standing trial for the murder of Michael Price has blamed his coaccused for the drug-fuelled attack.
Paul Watson told a jury that Christopher Hills repeatedly hit the 36-yearold with a knuckle duster and stamped on his head during a sustained assault, which was like “something out of a horror story”.
Mr Price was found unresponsive in Victor Street, Chester-le-Street, on January 13 after an anonymous 999 call was made but died 11 days later in hospital.
Watson, 31, and Hills, 30, deny murdering Mr Price and are standing trial at Newcastle Crown Court.
The jury was previously told how Mr Price, who struggled with addiction and had substances in his body when he was found, was drawn to his alleged killers through drug use.
Prosecutors claim he was the victim of a brutal attack by Hills and Watson at an address on Victor Street in the early hours of January 13 before he was dumped in the road nearby.
Stamp marks matching the shoes worn by the defendants were also found on Mr Price’s body, Nick Dry, prosecuting, said.
A knuckle duster bearing Watson’s fingerprints and with traces of the victim’s blood was found in a sink along with a knife and sheath having allegedly been washed in an attempt to destroy evidence, the court heard.
In total, the victim sustained 29 injuries, seven of which were to the head, causing a fatal haemorrhage.
On Wednesday, Watson, who suffers from learning difficulties, was in the witness box.
Giving evidence with the help of an intermediary, he said he had known Mr Price for a few years through their mutual drug addictions but had known Hills since they were both seven.
He admitted to taking up to £200worth of cocaine a day and told the jury he had been taking the drug with Mr Price and others on the day of the alleged attack.
Later in the afternoon, the pair had met up with Hills and had driven around Chester-le-Street in Mr Price’s van “in order to drop off ecstasy tablets”, Watson said.
He told the court that, at about 11pm, he went with Hills to a friend’s house on Victor Street while Mr Price briefly went back to his home address nearby.
During the following hour, Watson described Hills becoming aggressive as he received a number of phone calls from someone he presumed to be Mr Price.
Watson said: “I wanted to go home. I said ‘Chrissy, I’m going home.’
“He said ‘You’re f ***** g not. You’re waiting for Michael to come down.’”
When asked by his barrister, David Brooke QC, what happened next, Watson said Mr Price “burst in” through the front door.
“Michael pulled out a knife and said ‘I’m going to f ***** g kill you’”, Watson told jurors.
“It was the sort of knife you would get in a kitchen, like out of one of them blocks.”
Watson admitted to the jury he then struck Mr Price with a knuckle duster, which he had been handed by Hills, in “self-defence” as he waved the blade in his direction.
He said: “He [Mr Price] was waving the knife around and my life flashed about it. Chrissy passed me a knuckle duster and I hit Michael.
“I feared for my safety. It was selfdefence. I didn’t want to get stabbed, did I?”
When asked what happened next, Watson continued: “Chrissy intervened. He said I had not done enough. He said, ‘You have not done a good job. Give us the knuckle duster here. I will show you how to do it.’ He then said, ‘Do you realise he just tried to kill us?.’ “He took the knuckle duster off me. He started punching Michael all over with the knuckle duster on his back, to the face and the back of his head.”
Watson said he then put Mr Price, who was unconscious, in the recovery position. He added: “I think Chrissy then dragged Michael out and just left him in the street. He dragged him out on his own.”
Watson told jurors the pair went to a nearby friend’s house until the police arrived. Both men jumped out of a window and tried to flee, but were quickly detained and arrested.
The court heard that, while on remand awaiting trial, both Watson and Hills had been in the same prison, initially on the same wing until Watson was attacked by an “unknown inmate” with a razor blade.
Then, on the day their case was due to start and the pair were waiting in a prison holding room to be taken to court, Hills lashed out at Watson.
Watson, of The Crescent, Chester-leStreet, and Hills, of Gregory Terrace, Houghton-le Spring, deny murder.
The trial continues.