Man on trial for murder after cyclist 'killed in knuckle duster attack

QUOTE:
A man accused of murdering a cyclist with a knuckle duster had seriously injured a friend with the weapon during an incident just weeks before, a court has heard.

Cole Newark, 22, is on trial over the death of Darren Birks, 40, who was fatally injured in April 29 last year soon after riding past a Premier shop in Shaw Road, Boston.

Mr Birks suffered serious head injuries and brain damage and died in hospital on May 9.

Nottingham Crown Court heard that Newark had also pulled the knuckle duster from his pocket when he attacked a former friend Mark Storr in Boston on February 16.

Mr Storr was hit so hard that it damaged a titanium plate which had been inserted in his skull due to an earlier illness.

James House QC, prosecuting, said Mr Storr let police check his medical records ten weeks later, but by then Mr Birks had died.

Mr House told jurors: "Anyone who uses such a weapon, uses it for one thing and that is to cause very serious injury or indeed to kill.

"This man [Newark] used a knuckle duster and caused serious head injuries, multiple fractures causing damage to the brain.

"He [Mr Birks] never regained consciousness and died ten days later."

Jurors were shown CCTV of the moments before injuries were inflicted on the cyclist, as well as footage the attack on Mr Storr which happened as he left the Stump and Candle pub in Boston at 1.20am and embraced Newark.

Mr House said: "The defendant pulls his right hand out of his pocket with a knuckle duster on. The defendant knocks him unconscious."

The court heard a neurosurgeon found "a dent in the titanium plate" when he examined Mr Storr at the Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham.

He told police officers that this damage would have been caused by a kick or the use of something like a knuckle duster.

Mr House said it was clear that Newark and Mr Storr knew each other.

He said: "Mr Storr places both arms on his shoulders, in no way a threatening gesture. It appears to be a friendly one.

"The defendant puts his right hand in his pocket and has a knuckle duster on it. He was perfectly prepared to use it with devastating effect."

The court heard that Newark has learning difficulties and was suffering from depression following the cancer death of his father a few weeks earlier.

Newark, of Witham Bank West, Boston, admits manslaughter but denies murder.

The trial is expected to last for about a week.

https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/n...yclist-4475826