A man allegedly punched his friend to death after returning to their hotel to find he had "trashed" their room.
Liam O’Brien was charged with a single offence of manslaughter after Craig Fitzpatrick, 33, died following an assault in Heywood. The jury at Minshull Street Crown Court were told Mr O’Brien had booked into a two-day training session on installing flooring, which ran from January 13 to January 14 this year - as M.E.N reports.
Prosecutor Robert Dudley said the 37-year-old, of Leyfield Road in Liverpool, had arranged to stay over at the Village Hotel in Bury. The prosecutor added Mr Fitzpatrick had driven him over there on the evening of January 12.
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During the night, Mr Fitzpatrick was seen going down to reception, with both men leaving the hotel at 2.30am and returning at 4.30am, the prosecutor said. The next morning Mr Fitzpatrick dropped O’Brien off for the course where he stayed all day until he got a lift back at around 4.15pm, the court heard.
Mr Fitzpatrick went back to the hotel and later complained about his hotel room key not working, it was said. Staff issued him with a new hotel room key and during the day he had a conversation with a friend about allegedly having the hallucinogenic drug DMT and allegedly having half a bottle of gin in his room. At 2.20pm he went back to reception and appeared "intoxicated" and reception cut another hotel room key for him, the prosecutor said.
At 3pm staff responded to reports from hotel maintenance and went to the second floor where they saw that Mr Fitzpatrick was in the corridor, allegedly shirtless and "swaying around" with a fire extinguisher in each hand.
He was led back to his room, but later staff were delivering fresh towels nearby when they saw the room door swing open which was reported to the reception manager, jurors heard. They came back to the corridor to find Mr Fitzpatrick standing outside his room, only wearing shorts and ‘swinging’ fire extinguishers’ around.
Staff told him to put the extinguishers down and go back to his room, and he did so, the court heard. The reception manager and maintenance manager went to the room, and after receiving no reply from Mr Fitzpatrick, they went inside to find the TV had been ripped off the wall and the wall sockets had been cracked. It became apparent that Mr Fitzpatrick was in the bathroom and they asked him to leave, but there was a limited reply.
When O’Brien got back to the hotel room at around 4.50pm, he asked staff what was going on and went into the room and was ‘clearly surprised and angry’ at the state of it, Mr Dudley said. He said: “What the f*** has he done to my room…he’s a cheeky c***,” and apologised to the staff, jurors heard.
Hotel staff and O’Brien were able to get into the bathroom where they found Mr Fitzpatrick asleep on the shower tray and O’Brien was seen to move his foot towards Mr Fitzpatrick's stomach which caused him to get up and into a ‘fighting stance’, it was said. Words were exchanged, and O’Brien said: “What the f*** are you doing, what have you done."
There was a scuffle and O’Brien allegedly punched Mr Fitzpatrick, after which he ‘slumped’ against the wall and slid down. O’Brien was said to be acting ‘angrily and erratically’ and staff asked him to calm down and leave the room.
O’Brien left the hotel, but later attended by appointment at Bury police station, during which he explained Mr Fitzpatrick had driven him to the hotel, that he had wanted a drink so they had vodka and gin along with some cocaine and some DMT, jurors heard.
He said he had slept from about 4am until 8am and then Mr Fitzpatrick had dropped him off at the course. Mr Fitzpatrick then phoned him saying that he needed some cocaine, and O’Brien later got a lift back from the course from his tutor, and when he got back he found the room was ‘trashed’, it was said.
He said the bathroom door was locked and he tried to knock on the door to try and rouse Mr Fitzpatrick but couldn’t so he left, but later came back and shook him awake, during which he took a ‘fighting stance’ and looked at him in a ‘weird way’, Mr Dudley said.
O’Brien said he thought Mr Fitzpatrick was going to hit him, so punched him to the face once with each hand, the court heard. He said he didn’t intend to hurt him, and added that he panicked after leaving the room, called his girlfriend and got a taxi, it was said.
Mr Fitzpatrick died on January 16, and a post mortem report concluded that he died as as result of a traumatic basal subarachnoid haemorrhage which is ‘most commonly caused by a blow or blows to the head'.
On January 18, O’Brien was arrested at his home address and interviewed, in which point he confirmed he had shaken Mr Fitzpatrick but hadn’t kicked or stamped on him. He said he thought Mr Fitzpatrick was going to hit him, so he hit him first, throwing "three or four punches" to the face, Mr Dudley continued.
He said: "When it was suggested that he could have left the bathroom he said that it was a fight or flight situation. The prosecution case is clear - the defendant was angry and upset at what he saw when he got back to the hotel and lashed out at Mr Fitzpatrick.
“We agree and accept that he did not intend to cause really serious harm, but, we say, it was the act of punching him to the head, resulting in the head injury that killed Mr Fitzpatrick.”
O’Brien denies manslaughter.
Proceeding.
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