The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A 15-year-old girl accused of murder told a relative that she struck the victim four times with a metal pole, a jury was told on Tuesday (June 23).
The relative, who cannot be identified because of a court order, told the jury at Lincoln Crown Court that she collected the girl from outside shops on Pennygate, Spalding and took her home.
The 15-year-old is one of six teenagers accused of murdering Warren Free (42), during an incident in a park at the rear of Mr Free’s home in Coronation Close, Spalding.
The witness said: “She was crying hysterically. She was crying and crying and crying. She was saying she wanted to hand herself in. I asked what she had done.”
The witness said the girl then told her: “A man was offering us weed.”
The witness continued: “She said that this man then came out with a pole in his hand. He carried it towards her and said ‘Come on you bitch’.
“She said Jake [Edwards] hit him and got him to the floor. He grabbed her by the ankles. She said she grabbed the pole from him and hit him on the head four times. She said she then kicked him in the face.”
The witness told the jury that the 15-year-old later urged here to alter details of the conversation and give a different version to police.
She said the teenager suggested the original conversation was that the defendant swung the pole four times but on the first two occasions the blows struck other members of the group of youngsters in the park.
The defendant is then alleged to have said that the third swing missed completely with only the fourth attempt with the pole actually making contact with Mr Free.
The witness said: “I know that is not what she said to me. I know what she told me.”
The prosecution allege that Mr Free was kicked, punched and stamped on by the group of teenagers before a girl struck him over the head several times with a metal pole.
He went home to bed but friends were later unable to rouse him. An ambulance was called and he was airlifted to hospital but passed away within 24 hours from a head injury.
Six teenagers all deny the murder of Warren Free on 29 August 2014. Three of the defendants, including a girl, were 14 at the time while the others were a girl of 15 and a 16 year old together with Jake Edwards ,now 18.
Two of the boys, who were 14 and 16 at the time, each deny a charge of perverting the course of justice relating to the disposal of the metal pole in a nearby waterway.
The trial continues.
