An ex-soldier has been found guilty of killing an amputee by running over him with his own Mercedes car as he fled the scene of a burglary, a court has heard.
Errol Woodger broke into a block of flats in Erith, south-east London, in the early hours of December 29 2019, the Old Bailey had heard.
He was disturbed by resident Marc Allen, 50, and snatched his keys before making off in his car.
When Mr Allen tried to stop him, Woodger used the car “as a weapon” to run him over, prosecutor Anthony Orchard KC had said.
Neighbours found Mr Allen in the road with a severe head injury, from which he died a month later, having never regained consciousness.
Woodger, 38, of Belvedere, south-east London, had claimed he was only a passenger in the vehicle driven by an accomplice who had since died from a drug overdose.
A jury at the Old Bailey rejected his version of events and found the former soldier, who served in Afghanistan, guilty of manslaughter and robbery.
Woodger had clapped in the dock as he was cleared of the more serious offence of murder on Tuesday.
Marc Allen (Met Police/PA)
The court had previously heard that Mr Allen used a prosthetic limb since his lower right leg was amputated as a result of a previous illness.
His car, a grey Mercedes GLA, had been supplied by a Motability car scheme and was parked in the forecourt at the time it was stolen.
The court heard Woodger had planned to steal tools and a vehicle and sell them on and get money to spend on drugs.
Mr Allen had been dozing or watching television in his ground floor flat in Peareswood Road when a man was caught on CCTV outside.
The man climbed over a low wall and got into a neighbouring unoccupied flat through a window, the prosecutor said.
The victim put on his prosthetic leg but left his other trainer on the sofa in his rush to confront the intruder in the communal hallway.
Mr Orchard said: “Within minutes, Marc Allen’s Mercedes was being stolen. His car keys had been taken. You can be sure he wouldn’t have handed them over voluntarily.”
Mr Allen was heard to shout “That’s my car. You aren’t taking my car”, as he stood on the driveway.
The car engine revved several times and Mr Allen may have suffered a “glancing blow” as the vehicle reversed quickly out of the parking spot, jurors were told.
Mr Allen then stood in the middle of the road with his hands up and saying “That’s my car”, jurors were told.
Seconds later, the car revved forward “at speed” and hit Mr Allen, sending him crashing into the bonnet and over roof of the Mercedes, the court had heard.
Neighbour Linda Rumsey, who witnessed the incident, recalled: “He slid down the back of the boot and his head went bang when it hit the floor, I heard his head crack, it sent a shiver through me.
“Whoever was in that car was intent on taking it, nothing was going to stop him.”
Other neighbours heard Mr Allen shout “Oi” several times, and a car screeching.
Louise Hamilton saw him on the ground and rushed outside to help, jurors were told.
She noted Mr Allen had a “golf ball size” bump on the back of his head and a similar one above his eye, as well as injuries to his chin, forearm and hands.
Emergency services were called at 2.53am and Mr Allen was taken to King’s College Hospital where he died on January 29 2020.
Jurors were told his stolen Mercedes was found by police two days after it was taken, on a driveway on the Isle of Dogs in east London.
Woodger was arrested on May 28 2020 and gave a statement denying involvement in Mr Allen’s death, saying: “I was nowhere near the scene of the crime at the time the victim was attacked.”
He told police that on the day of the murder, he was attacked and injured by eight males on his way to his mother’s house in Greenwich, south-east London, and taken to hospital, where he remained for a month.
Police confirmed he had been seriously assaulted that afternoon but that it happened 12 hours after the robbery and killing.
Mr Orchard suggested the assault on the defendant was “not a random act of violence but was related” to the robbery.
The prosecutor said Woodger had been beat up at a traveller site because he had taken the “very hot” car there immediately after the hit and run.
Mr Orchard told jurors: “You know there was an organised crime group operating from the site, and that people on the site were involved in dealing drugs.
“They did not need or want attention. The car needed to be hidden, as it eventually was, not paraded into the site within an hour of having been stolen, having just run down the owner.”
Following a police review of the case, further lines of inquiry were pursued last year when the defendant was forensically linked to three items from the stolen car.
Woodger was re-arrested after his fingerprints were identified on a plastic box and water bottle found under the front passenger seat and his DNA was discovered on a cigarette.
Giving evidence in his trial, Woodger admitted being in the car but claimed an accomplice was behind the wheel when Mr Allen was hit and he was crouched down in the passenger seat.
But Mr Orchard told jurors: “Before you, we suggest, he has come up with a carefully tailored version of events in a desperate, selfish attempt to try and save his own skin.
“No thought given for the victim or his family. We suggest he has lied and lied again. What he says now simply doesn’t stack up.”
The court was also told Woodger had committed 15 previous offences including robbery and attempted robbery.
The jury deliberated for seven-and-a-half hours to reach unanimous verdicts.
Judge Rebecca Trowler KC remanded the defendant into custody to be sentenced on June 27.
