Carl Tindall manslaughter trial: Jury retraces last steps of attack victim

Carl Tindall was found with serious head wounds by passers-by, including an off-duty nurse, on Cull Avenue, Stafford, at around 9.30pm on August 22 last year.

The 35-year-old, who had a fractured skull and suffered a brain haemorrhage, died two days later at Royal Stoke University Hospital.

Jamie Sleigh, 36, of St John's Road, Cannock, is standing trial accused of manslaughter but denies the charge.

Anthony Boddison, 26, of St Peter's Gardens, Stafford, and sisters Sarah Hurmson, 36, of Greig Court, Heath Hayes, and Louise Hurmson, 32, of Avenue Road, Heath Hayes, deny assisting an offender.

During the trial on Monday at Stafford Crown Court, the jury travelled by coach from the Swan hotel and pub in Greengate Street, where Mr Tindall had been drinking, to Plant Crescent, also in the town.

It is here that it is alleged he was punched twice in the face by Sleigh, before being bundled into the back of a BMW 1 Series and dumped on Cull Avenue.

• MORE: Carl Tindall had ‘massive head injuries’, jury hears

• MORE: 'Bang and that was it' - Witness tells of lethal punch

• MORE: Dying man was ‘bundled into car and dumped in street’

The jury walked up the driveway of the property where Mr Tindall, of Brocton, is believed to have received the blows to the head, before he was left for dead on Cull Avenue, 0.3 miles from the Weston Road entrance of County Hospital.

The court was told that Mr Tindall had ventured from the pub to the address on Plant Crescent to confront Boddison after he had heard a rumour his girlfriend Sarah Hurmson had been sleeping with him.

When he arrived at the property, however, Mr Tindall was allegedly punched by Sleigh, who admitted later to police that he had slept with Sarah Hurmson three times in the last five or six years, despite having a pregnant girlfriend.

The jury heard the transcript from Sleigh's police interview of August 26 in which Sleigh claimed it was in fact Boddison who 'assaulted' Mr Tindall, and he merely sat in the car after the attack while Boddison drove to Cull Avenue.

Sleigh claims they had intended to take the injured man to the hospital, but that Boddison became frustrated with Mr Tindall's mumbled swearing and told him to get out of the car.

After seeing a post about the incident on social media the next day, Sleigh told police he took his phone to his father's house and took the clothes he was wearing in a suitcase to his aunt's.

The court also heard how Sleigh spent two nights in a hotel in Cannock on his own following the events of August 22.

Jurors heard how two neighbours in Plant Crescent told police they saw a man in a white t-shirt and glasses punch Mr Tindall in the face – after which he remained standing.

The man then punched Mr Tindall again, causing him to fall backwards, hitting his head on the bonnet of the BMW before hitting his head on the ground. Sleigh, who wore glasses in court, told the police he was wearing a white Lacoste polo t-shirt on that day.

Dc Graham Tomlinson read out the police statements of Sleigh and Boddison.

In his police interview, Boddison said " I cared about Tindall. He was my mate. He was harmless, soft really. When he turned up I just told him to go home."

The trial continues.