The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Jurors in the trial of six teenagers accused of the murder of Spalding man Warren Free were told on Tuesday (July 14) that a 14-year-old girl accused of the killing did not deliver any of the blows that led to his death.
Michael Evans QC, representing the girl, told the jury in his closing speech: “You have to decide the case on the evidence. Not on speculation, not on emotion, not on tragedy but on the evidence.
“It is a certainty that she did not deliver the blow or blows that killed Warren Free. She did not.”
He said his client had not been portrayed by the prosecution as either a main player or a leader in the events that resulted in the fatal incident.
Mr Evans told the jury: “She is a charming, lovely, young, naïve girl. She was young for her age and by far the most immature.”
The barrister said that the evidence was that the 14-year-old girl was “terrified for her life” when Mr Free, armed with a metal pole, pursued her for 50 metres through the park known as Bumpies.
Mr Evans said the girl admitted that she had earlier been one of the defendants who kicked down Mr Free’s garden fence but he told the jury: “Kicking a fence does not make a 14-year-old guilty of murder.”
He said there was not scientific or eye witness evidence to support a conviction for murder against his client and urged the jurors to acquit her.
Alistair Malcolm QC, for a 16-year-old boy also accused of murder, said that the only evidence against his client came from another youngster who was originally arrested for murder but was later released without charge.
He told the jury: “The only source of evidence as far as he is concerned is that witness. If you take him away, there is nothing.
“There is no evidence from any source that my client caused the fatal blow. There is no blood. There is no evidence of any footwear impression. There is not a single piece of scientific evidence against him. There is no telephone evidence. There is no social media evidence. There was no CCTV on Bumpies Field.
“The prosecution say that it was joint enterprise. There was no plan to attack Warren Free.”
Six teenagers deny the murder of Mr Free (42), of Coronation Close, Spalding.
