Schoolboys ‘offered £100 to batter joiner’
MURDER TRIAL SHOWN CCTV FOOTAGE OF ROLEX OWNER’S FINAL HOURS
TWO schoolboys were offered £100 each to ‘batter’ a man shortly before he was killed, a court heard.
Jurors heard a second day of evidence into the death of Steven McMyler, from Marsh Green, Wigan, at Manchester Crown Court.
The 34-year-old joiner was found with serious injuries in the gardens of Wigan Parish Church on August 6 last year, and was later pronounced dead despite the best efforts of medics.
Lewis Peake, 30, is alleged to have recruited four others to assault Mr McMyler in an attempt to take his ‘very valuable’ Rolex watch.
The jury was shown CCTV footage from across Wigan town centre in the hours leading up to Mr McMyler’s death.
It showed Mr McMyler walking along Wallgate with a suitcase at 3.20pm, before entering the Goldsmiths jewellery store. Footage then showed Mr McMyler heading to the Moon Under Water pub, around the same time that Mr Peake arrived.
Further CCTV images showed the pair remaining together at the Raven pub until 6.40pm, when Mr Peake is seen walking off with an unknown woman, before returning to the Raven.
After 7pm, the footage showed Peake talking to two young boys, who later went on to follow Mr Peake and Mr McMyler to Wigan Parish Church.
The two boys gave evidence in court and identified themselves in the CCTV footage.
The first, a 12-year-old who was 11 at the time of the alleged incident, described how Mr Peake offered the pair cash to assault Mr McMyler so he could steal his Rolex watch.
He said: “I put my thumb up to him. He shouted us over. All I remember him saying was ‘do you want to earn some money? If you batter that man over there I’ll give you £100 each.’”
The court heard that Mr Peake pulled out the money from his sock, told the youngsters to get other people involved in the assault and that he would ‘give a signal’ when to carry it out.
The 12-year-old suggested Mr Peake was ‘sniffing’ something – taking drugs – and grew increasingly nervous in his company.
The boy’s friend, aged 13 now and at the time of the incident, also told court that Mr Peake had offered them money to ‘threaten’ Mr McMyler – and that they had ‘10 minutes to get more people.’ He added: “I didn’t want to do it, I wanted to go home at the time.”
The boys told court they left the scene having felt uncomfortable outside Wigan Parish Church, but the 12-year-old said he returned later that evening after seeing an ambulance.
He said that he could not see Mr Peake at the gardens, but could see Mr McMyler ‘dead on the floor.’
Mr Peake, of James Street, Little Lever, is currently standing trial with Michael Wilson, 20, of Northfield Close, Kirkby, and two teenage boys aged 14 and 17 who cannot be named for legal reasons.
A fifth defendant – Jordan Short, 20, of Rushkey Hey Road, Kirkby – is not being tried with the other four due to being unwell and is due to face court at a later date. All five deny murder, manslaughter and conspiracy to rob.
● Proceeding