A murder trial has heard that a pub owner was killed by a punch to the neck during a 'completely unprovoked and senseless attack' in a bar. Billy Allison, 36, who founded Raise the Colours, is alleged to have delivered a 'very, very hard' punch to 44-year-old Matthew O'Gara at the Ricco and Loren bar in Lichfield on May 24, Stafford Crown Court heard on Wednesday.
Allison denies the murder of Mr O'Gara and charges of grievous bodily harm with intent to Mr O'Gara's friend Adam Cooper, but admits charges of manslaughter and inflicting grievous bodily harm.
Prosecution outlines the attack
Prosecution counsel Timothy Hannam KC said Allison, of Cropthorne Road in Shirley, Solihull, West Midlands, had been visiting Lichfield with a group of friends including his girlfriend Charlotte Dean and friends Ryan Bridge and Ben Cullen, and had been drinking throughout the day before the attack on the two men, whom he did not know. Allison also took cocaine at some point that day, Mr Hannam said.
He said: 'Matthew O'Gara was killed by a full-force, hard punch to the neck delivered by this defendant as part of a completely unprovoked and senseless attack on Matthew O'Gara and his friend Adam Cooper, who was 65 years old. Matthew O'Gara was seriously injured and rendered unconscious before he hit the floor.'
Mr O'Gara, a publican who ran a country pub called The Plough on the outskirts of Lichfield, was 'completely oblivious' and had his back to Allison on the dancefloor as the defendant punched him in the side of the neck. The force of the punch made a sound loud enough to be heard over the bar's DJ sound system, Mr Hannam said, and was hard enough to break several bones in his neck and split an artery. The bleeding caused a massive haemorrhage to the base of his brain, which resulted in Mr O'Gara going into cardiac arrest.
Sequence of the assault
'He immediately fell to the ground motionless. Indeed, he never moved again,' Mr Hannam said. After punching Mr O'Gara, who never regained consciousness and died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham two days later, Allison then punched the deceased's friend Mr Cooper, leaving him with a fractured eye socket and nose.
CCTV from the bar's dancefloor appeared to show Mr Cooper looking in the direction of Allison and his girlfriend on several occasions before the attack. Mr Hannam said: 'With Matthew O'Gara out of the way and the defendant's path to Adam Cooper clear, as Mr O'Gara landed on the floor, Mr Cooper, who had been dancing, looked down at him, no doubt distracted and puzzled, whereupon the defendant immediately used his right fist to punch Mr Cooper hard in the face. These were very powerful boxer punches. In total, three devastating punches had been delivered in about six seconds, and two men had been demolished by them.'
As CCTV footage of the fatal assault was played in court, Allison, who wore a black suit and tie and a white shirt, looked down at the floor in the dock. Mr Hannam said eyewitnesses described Allison, who had been drinking at several bars and pubs in Lichfield with his group of friends during the day, as 'almost frothing, as if wanting a fight and manic, as if he was on something.'
Aftermath and arrest
The bouncer released Allison 'on the orders' of the bar's owner, who was a friend of the defendant's, Mr Hannam said, and he returned to the area where people were attempting to revive Mr O'Gara. The court heard that Allison swapped T-shirts with his friend Ben Cullen as he left the pub. Allison and Mr Cullen were next seen on CCTV at around 1am in parkland on the edge of the city centre before later reappearing at the Cathedral Hotel in Beacon Street, where Mr Cullen had been booked to stay the night.
Mr Hannam said: 'The defendant had the presence of mind to lie low. That presence of mind continued at the Cathedral Hotel. The defendant was booked in at St John's House, a B&B on St John Street. The prosecution say instead of going back to where he had been booked in, he instead intended to evade capture by staying with Ben Cullen on the other side of the city centre.'
After his arrest at around 5am at the Cathedral Hotel, Allison answered no comment to questions asked of him by the police. Mr Hannam said he believed it would be Allison's case that he was 'sleep-deprived, drunk and had been taking cocaine', but that he had not intended to cause really serious harm. The trial continues.
