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Rough sleeper killed at Marble Arch, jury told
Court hears how tourist attraction was turned into a crime scene
HUNDREDS of tourists watched as police turned a garden in the shadow of Marble Arch into a murder scene.
The discovery of the body of a rough sleeper, killed by an attack with a broken bottle, brought sightseers to the area on foot.
Others looked and filmed from the tops of buses as detectives went about their work of gathering evidence.
A tent covered the corpse of 34 year-old Ian Liddle on a raised flowerbed on the traffic roundabout at the Arch, an Old Bailey jury heard this week.
Bricklayer Mr Liddle was killed by fellow heavy drinker James Stewart, 40, after the pair – who were among a number of men who used the garden as their ‘home’ – argued and brawled.
Stewart, jobless, used a shattered wine bottle to inflict horrific injuries to his head, face and neck, and possibly while he was asleep, said prosecutor Jeremy Donne, QC.
Stewart, a Scot, denies murdering Mr Liddle, from Newcastle, but admits being responsible for his death, claiming he did not have the capacity to form an intent.
“He relies on the defence of diminished responsibility due to alcoholism,” Mr Donne told the jury.
The victim’s body was discovered at 3am on August 30 last year after another ‘Arch dweller’ rang police.
The caller told an operator: “I can see his head has been smashed in and it looks like half his ear is missing.”
Soon afterwards the area was swarming with police while paramedics carrier out their examination.
Pools of blood and bloody footprints were littered with fragments of broken glass.
Stewart later appeared from bushes and confessed, the court heard.
Others had seen him and Mr Liddle arguing. Mr Liddle slapped or punched Stewart a number of times, causing facial injuries. They were pulled apart but there was a second a second fierce exchange between the pair. Again it was broken up.
Stewart allegedly waited for his chance to get even and it came when most of those present were asleep.
Armed with the jagged neck of a bottle he launched his fatal attack.
The trial continues. |
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