BARKING DOG ROW KILLER FOUND GUILTY
AMAN has been found guilty of murdering a disabled neighbour who died in hospital two years after an attack sparked by a row over a barking dog.
Raymond Burrell, 43, denied murdering Matthew Sheehan, but was found guilty by a jury yesterday following a two-week trial at Newport Crown Court.
Prosecutor Michael Jones QC said: “He deliberately, brutally and repeatedly attacked him, causing him catastrophic and life-changing injuries that ultimately led to his death.”
The assault happened in Adamscroft Place, Adamsdown, Cardiff, at around 7am on September 1, 2015.
Prosecutors said a friend went to see Mr Sheehan the day before the incident and thought he seemed “frightened” following a dispute with a neighbour.
The court heard Mr Sheehan told his friend a neighbour’s dog was barking and keeping him awake so he told the dog to “shut up” and the neighbour confronted him.
Neighbours who lived upstairs described hearing a disturbance on the morning of September 1.
The said they heard banging, kicking, and shouting and heard Mr Sheehan’s voice screaming: “Help.” They also heard “groaning” noises like someone was in pain.
After one of the neighbours called 999, they described the defendant walking off and then coming back to the flat.
They said they heard more swearing and kicking, but the second time there were no groans or cries for help and everything went silent.
Prosecutors described the assault as a “relentless beating”.
When paramedics arrived at the flats they found Mr Sheehan lying face-down, bleeding and unresponsive. He was at “three” on the Glasgow Coma Scale, the lowest possible score.
He was taken to intensive care at Cardiff ’s University Hospital of Wales.
Prosecutors said he suffered “multiple, severe and catastrophic injuries”. He was found to have bruising to his brain, a fractured jaw, fractured left eye socket, and a wound above his right eye that had to be stapled.
He was put on a ventilator and kept in an artificial coma.
He was eventually able to be transferred to Rookwood Hospital, a specialist rehabilitation hospital in Cardiff – but he did not regain a normal level of consciousness.
Prosecutors said: “Such was the ferocity of the attack on Matthew Sheehan, it caused him catastrophic brain injuries. He had little quality of life.”
Mr Sheehan needed round-theclock specialist medical care and suffered repeated chest infections.
He was 36 when he died on November 9, 2017, with respiratory complications.
It took the jury around three hours to deliver its unanimous guilty verdict and Mr Justice Griffiths thanked the jurors for their work.
Mr Jones said Burrell had 13 previous offences on his record, including criminal damage in 1990.
The court heard he had a conviction dating back to 1994 for possessing an offensive weapon and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Prosecutors said the defendant was refused entry to a nightclub in Cardiff city centre and attacked the door supervisor with a knife.
The court heard in July 2002, he shot and killed 17-year-old Amie Miles in Grangetown.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter, saying the gun went off accidentally. He fled from Cardiff following the incident and the gun was never recovered.
Burrell was jailed for six years in November 2011 for possessing cocaine with intent to supply and was on licence when he attacked Mr Sheehan.
The defendant was convicted in 2016 of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Mr Sheehan.
Prosecutors said Mr Sheehan was still in hospital, unable to communicate, while that trial took place.
Mr Justice Griffiths said: “There is only one sentence I can pass and that is imprisonment for life. I have to consider what the minimum term will be.”
Burrell will be sentenced on
Thursday.