Edwin Bradley: Woman saw stranger at murder victim's flat
A neighbour of a murdered 65-year-old has told a jury she met a stranger at the home of the victim four days before his body was found.
Denise Morrall, who lived in a flat directly below the one in which the attack on Edwin ‘Eddie’ Bradley is said to have taken place, had been kept awake for 90 minutes by unusual noises on July 2, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
She explained from the witness box: “It sounded like furniture being moved about and then there was a noise that was like something falling to the floor. My light fitting shook. The noise continued and after one and a half hours I decided I had had enough, walked upstairs and knocked on the front door of Eddie’s flat three times.
“There was no response for a short time but as the door started to open I heard his voice saying: ‘I know who that is.’ But he was not the man who opened the door. I was quite shocked.
“I said: ‘Who is making all the noise?’ When the other man said it was Eddie I added: ‘Tell him if he doesn’t stop the noise I will call the police.’ The man said ‘OK’ in a sarcastic way and closed the door.”
Mr Michael Duck QC, prosecuting, maintained the other man was Darren Barnes from Bloxwich Road, Walsall who had allegedly become a regular visitor to the address during the days leading to the murder.
Mrs Morrall said the lack of light ensured she could only make out the shadow of the stranger’s face. She left for a week’s holiday shortly after 10am on July 2.
Mr Bradley is said to have been killed by Barnes on July 4.
Barnes denies murder and the trial continues.
