Jury hears drug addict’s account of pair’s threats
A MURDER trial has heard that the two accused paid a drug addict to “take the charge” by telling police he was driving the car which hit Carl Eland.
Brandon Ali and Joey Matthews, both 21, are charged with the murder of Carl Eland. Yesterday they sat at the back of the court listening as a transcript of Ian Maughan’s police interview was read out.
Mr Maughan, who had been released from prison for causing serious injury by dangerous driving, initially called police to confess but later told them he had been paid in cash, drugs and clothes from JD Sports to take the blame. Teesside Crown Court heard Mr Maughan died in July from a suspected drugs overdose.
The court heard he had walked into Middlesbrough Police station on August 28 – the week after Mr Eland was hit by a car while out cycling on Homerton Road in Pallister Park.
Mr Eland, a dad of four, was catapulted on to the Vauxhall’s bonnet before landing on the road.
He died from a fracture to his skull five days later.
After initially calling police to confess to the alleged hit and run, Mr Maughan told officers: “I was off me head. Brandon and Joey were there when I phoned. They practically put words in me mouth. They told me what to say.”
Mr Maughan went on to tell them that Ali said he would “squash me debt. I owed about £1,200 for a month, a month and half’s, crack.
“They were threatening to go to me mam’s for money so they would not go to my mam’s – that was the main thing.
“I’ve just done a charge of dangerous drive. I didn’t want to do it. I was pressured into doing it because I was full of tablets.”
In the transcript, Mr Maughan said
he went to meet Ali at Hemlington Lake, and was promised £150 and some clothes and Ali gave him a version of events to say to the police – that he had driven on to Homerton Road, and taken a left turn into a dead end.
Mr Maughan said he agreed to say that and while driving out he heard a bang to the left-hand side of the car but thought he had hit a kerb.
After thinking better of his confession a few days later, because he didn’t want to go to jail for something he hadn’t done, Maughan told police Ali Brandon and Joey Matthews were involved in a crack war with Carl Eland
In court he said: “Joey was the driver. They’ve had an ongoing feud for a long time.
“They told me they put him over the bonnet basically. They’ve had trouble before with him. They drove past him, there he is and bang.”
However, when police pushed for more information, Mr Maughan – who said he hadn’t eaten or slept for two days – lost his temper: “I’m not f **** having it. No comment, no comment, no comment.”
Maughan said Ali warned him not to tell anyone, telling him it was “easy to make someone disappear.”
The trial continues.