Pair found not guilty of attack on man in flat
TWO men accused of attacking another man in a Southport flat and repeatedly stopping him fleeing for safety have been cleared.
Warren Balshaw had claimed that while he was sitting in a friend’s flat watching TV, Gerard O’Connor and Vincent Valentine came in and his protracted ordeal began.
But after hearing evidence from the two defendants, a jury at Liverpool Crown Court found them both not guilty of three offences involving wounding Mr Balshaw and falsely imprisoning him.
Mr Balshaw, 25, had alleged that the incident began on the evening of August 1 last year while he was alone in a flat in Church Street, Southport.
He said that the defendants, who also lived in the same block, knocked at the door and after they came in he was repeatedly assaulted and his attempts to flee blocked.
Mr O’Connor, 40, now of Stanley Road, Bootle and Mr Valentine, 49, still of Church Street, Southport, both told the jury that the allegations were untrue. Mr O’Connor said there had previously been problems over a missing mobile phone after they had been at the flat where the incident allegedly occurred and Mr Balshaw had come round “on the bounce” and Mr Valentine had rung the police.
On August 1 Mr Balshaw came round to Mr Valentine’s flat, where Mr O’Connor was, and when asked what he wanted he told them to come to the other flat and they went down there.
He denied they had forced their way in and said Mr Balshaw told them he did not want them living there and grabbed the bottle of vodka they had taken with them and started swigging from it.
“He was smug and in my face making verbal threats,” said Mr O’Connor.
“I said, ‘I’m not moving’ and he headbutted me and punched me twice on the side of the head. I put my arm out and pushed him and hit him a couple of times.”
He said Mr Balshaw went for the bottle and the three men ended up on the floor with him and Mr Balshaw falling through the glass-topped coffee table. Mr Valentine suffered a cut hand and after he cleaned himself up they left.
He denied trying to bite him or striking him other than twice after he was butted and described the allegations as “absolute nonsense.”
Mr Valentine said that Mr Balshaw had tried to hit Mr O’Connor with the bottle and he grabbed his arm to stop him – as did Mr O’Connor – and in the scuffle all ended up on the floor and his hand got cut.