Electrician guilty of murdering butcher

An electrician has today been found guilty of murdering a Black Country butcher after punching him to ground and kicking him in the head outside an Indian restaurant.

Mitchell Jones, 24, of Chad Road, Coseley, killed Jamie Roberts when an argument they were having spilled outside the Rose of Kashmir in Wolverhampton Street, Dudley.

A jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court today returned a unanimous verdict that Jones was guilty of murder.

Mr Roberts, 36, of Malthouse Drive, Dudley, died of severe head and brain injuries four days after the attack.

During the seven-day trial the court heard that Jones punched Mr Roberts in the face, knocking him to the ground. His head "cracked" against the kerb as he landed on the ground, said Mr Michael Burrows, prosecuting.

Jones denied kicking the father-of-two, a partner in the J & G Butchers business in Russells Hall Road, while he lay on the pavement. But four eyewitnesses, including Mr Roberts's fiancee Beth Hodgkinson, said they saw Jones kick Mr Roberts in the head.

Paul Price, a delivery driver for the restaurant, told the jury that when Mr Roberts was lying on the pavement, Jones kicked him twice in the face "like a football".

Mr Roberts had been drinking in the Struggling Man pub with Miss Hodgkinson before going for a meal at about 2am on April 18.

The two men started arguing inside the restaurant before moving outside at about 2am on April 18.

Jones had, claimed Mr Roberts, come "steaming in" at him and that he was acting in self defence by punching him.