Derby Telegraph

Murder accused begged partner of dying man to ‘switch his life support back on’

HE POSED AS HER SON WHEN HE CALLED HOSPITAL

- By MARTIN NAYLOR martin.naylor@reachplc.com

A YOUNG Derby man phoned the girlfriend of a man he had stabbed and pleaded with her to get medics to switch the victim’s life support machine back on, a court heard.

A trial was told how Mateusz Maciejewsk­i phoned the ward where Lisa Borrington had made the decision to switch Karl Taylor’s machine off and conned those who answered the phone into believing he was related to her.

When Miss Borrington was handed the call she heard the 20-year-old – who she had been told was her son Deon – say to her “Karl is not allowed to die, tell them to switch the machine back on”.

Maciejewsk­i is one of four men on trial for the murder of the 43-yearold, who was stabbed twice on the landing of his flat in the Rowditch area of Derby on December 8, 2019. All of them deny the charge. Opening the case at Nottingham Crown Court, prosecutor James House QC said two weeks after the stabbing and while the victim was at the Queen’s Medical Centre medics advised there was nothing more they could do and Miss Borrington made the heartbreak­ing decision to switch the machine off.

He said: “During the final few hours of his life the ward was receiving calls fielded by the nurses.

“One of them was from someone who told them he was the son of Lisa Borrington.

“When she was passed the phone she thought it was her son and he told her to turn the machine back on, saying Karl could not be allowed to die. At the end of the call he called her ‘sweetie’ and this was not a phrase her son would ever use.

“She asked her other son, who was present, to message that son and ask him if he had called the ward.

“He did that and the other son said he had not.

“He (Maciejeswk­i) was concerned about Karl Taylor dying because he was the man who stabbed him.”

Maciejewsk­i, Callum McConnell, and brothers Gursimran Mann and Sahib Mann are alleged to have been responsibl­e for the killing at Mr Taylor’s flat in Uttoxeter Road.

The jury was told how they had gone to his flat to confront him after he stole items from the Premier Store opposite, which was owned by the family of the Mann brothers.

As he opened the door Maciejewsk­i is alleged to have stabbed him twice, causing the injuries which led to his death.

The quartet then fled the area. Within 20 minutes the hard drive from the CCTV at the Premier Store then went missing and was never recovered, neither was the knife.

The four men then went to the former Intu Centre in the city centre and bought new clothes.

Mr House, in his opening, said: “We say all four defendants were party to the attack, they went there armed and mob-handed and are all therefore equally responsibl­e for what happened.

“We understand that his (Maciejewsk­i’s) position is now he accepts it was him that stabbed Karl Taylor but that he was acting in self defence – that it was Karl Taylor who produced the knife, that he managed to get it off him and in the struggle Karl Taylor ended up getting stabbed.”

The trial of Maciejewsk­i, of Shakespear­e Street, Sinfin; McConnell, 21, of Ednaston Avenue, Littleover; Gursimran Mann, 21, and Sahib Mann, 23, both of Hollowood Avenue, Littleover, continues.

 ??  ?? Police at the scene after the incident in which Karl Taylor was fatally injured
Police at the scene after the incident in which Karl Taylor was fatally injured

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