The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
The jury in the trial of six teenagers accused of the murder of Spalding man Warren Free are to continue their deliberations into a seventh day tomorrow (Friday).
The jury of six men and six women, who retired on Thursday of last week at the end of a month-long trial, spent today (Thursday) continuing to deliberate without returning any verdicts before they were sent home for the night by the trial judge Mr Justice Goss.
The prosecution alleges 43-year-old Mr Free suffered fatal injuries after he confronted a group of teenagers in the early hours of the morning about noise they were making in a park at the rear of his home in Coronation Close, Spalding.
It is alleged that Mr Free was kicked, punched and stamped on by the teenagers before a 15-year-old 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 August 29 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.
A boy, who was 14 at the time, denies a charge of perverting the course of justice relating to the disposal of the metal pole in the Coronation Channel in Spalding. A second boy, aged 16 at the time, has admitted perverting the course of justice.
None of the defendants gave evidence to the jury. Barristers representing the defendants have argued that the accused whom the prosecution claim were involved in violence towards Mr Free acted lawfully either in their own self defence or in the defence of others in the group. Others are said not to have been involved at all and claim to have been innocent bystanders.
