Murder accused denies causing injuries
6:04am Friday 12th March 2010 in News
ONE of four people accused of murdering a young man told police he was not responsible for the fatal injuries.
Liverpool Crown Court heard 23-year-old Owen Skeate denied attacking Shaun Fitton and disputed claims by one of his co-accused he had assaulted him with a mop handle.
Skeate, of Bowling Green Row, Atherton, is on trial accused of murder, along with Shaun Beatty, Michael Gerrard and Rebecca Birt.
Beatty, aged 20, who lived with mother-of-one Birt at her home in West Bank Street, Atherton, has claimed it was Skeate who used the mop handle on Mr Fitton.
But the jury heard yesterday that in a series of eight interviews, Skeate denied that allegation.
Mr Fitton, aged 26, also known as Shaun Anthony Hall, died from multiple organ failure following a combination of serious head and abdominal injuries.
DC Graham Elleray told the jury that Skeate was arrested and interviewed after Mr Fitton, of Westhoughton, was found screaming in agony in Birt’s back yard, in the early hours of August 31 last year.
The jury heard police found him, 22-year-old Gerrard, of Rivington Street, Atherton, and Birt, aged 22, at the house and Beattie was seen fleeing through the front of the house. He later gave himself up.
The court has heard that Mr Fitton had been stripped naked, covered in white paint and pushed around the streets in the wheelie bin before being taken back to Birt’s home.
Neil Flewitt, prosecuting, said that the internal abdominal injuries were the result of the mop handle being used as a weapon in sexually motivated attack.
He has suggested the “sexually motivated and sadistic killing” was intended to humiliate and punish Mr Fitton.
The court heard that Beatty’s fingerprints were found on the mop handle but when interviewed, he denied being responsible and alleged he saw Skeate assaulting the victim with it.
The jury had previously heard that when police arrived at the scene, Skeate, Gerrard and Birt were standing at the kitchen door, and when asked what had happened they all laughed and said, “we’ve painted him”.
The case continues.
