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Jail for
killing 'pal'
A MAN who throttled an “aggressive drunk” has begun
a four year jail term.
Christopher Gerard Maddocks described to an Old Bailey court
how he “accidentally” ended the life of his good friend
Michael Mitchell.
Maddocks, 45, a barman, denied throughout his week-long trial
that he intended any harm to 42-year-old chronic alcoholic Mr
Mitchell.
His legal team is expected to appeal the verdict convicting
him of manslaughter. The jury cleared him of murder.
Maddocks, of Waltham House, Boundary Road, Swiss Cottage was
jailed by Judge Anthony Scott-Gall.
A Sunday afternoon phone call to Maddocks from concerned neighbour
Anne O’Connor, a former partner of Mr Mitchell, sent him
to the victim’s 13th floor at Casterbridge House, on the
Abbey Road estate, on April 3 last year.
Mr Mitchell, jobless for years and in a “suicidal frame
of mind”, had trusted him with the keys to his home to
use in an emergency.
Maddocks said he found his friend getting dressed intending
to go to hospital. He was in a bad mood. They were chatting
when Mr Mitchell “suddenly snapped and threatened to kill
me”.
Fearing that Mr Mitchell would make a grab for a knife or a
bottle, on a table nearby, Maddocks said: “I grabbed him
with one hand by the throat to restrain him and keep him off.”
As Mr Mitchell slumped to the floor Maddocks realised he was
in a bad way and phoned for an ambulance. But on arrival at
St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, Mr Mitchell was dead.
The jury heard that in the months leading to his death Mr Mitchell
became increasingly verbally and physically aggressive. He was
involved in one incident in which a woman suffered a knife wound.
Maddocks said: “He was having fits but was petrified of
hospitals. I offered to go with him.”
Police were accused by defence QC Andrew Campbell-Tiech during
the trial of bending the rules to “make a case” for
murder against him.
When he was first arrested and taken to Holborn police station
he should have had the services of a solicitor but was initially
denied contact with one.
Detectives in the case rejected any wrongdoing. |
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