MURDER TRIAL: 'Kicks were with force' - jury told

THE wife of a former Mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon has told a court how she held the hand of a dying man moments after he received a vicious beating.

Roxanne Bennis told the jury at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday, Wednesday, that the people who were attacking 36-year-old Tristram Wallace were doing so 'with force'.

Mr Wallace, the court heard, was set upon by Peter Mallon, Toney Jelf and Neil Potter in what one witness described as a rugby maul in a traffic island, before he staggered across the road and was attacked again near Brewery Street.

The group, who were joined by Donna Windsor, who accused the victim of taking her purse, then searched through Mr Wallace’s pockets as he lay on the ground.

Mrs Bennis said: “I remember that the kicks were with force, enough to make me concerned for the man’s health, I thought he would end up with a lot of bruising.

"He was kicked more than once to his upper body and head area, he was just lying there, he was doing nothing.”

The court heard that the four people involved in the attack ran off when they heard police sirens at the scene.

Mr Wallace died following the attack that happened during the early evening on Monday, 22nd June last year.

Last week James Curtis QC, opening the trial for the prosecution, said the motive for the attack was the mistaken belief by the defendants that they had been cheated in a drug deal by Mr Wallace.

Potter, 36, of Clopton Road, Stratford; Jelf, 39, of Childs Close, Stratford; Mallon, 41 of Rumer Close, Long Marston; and Windsor, 37, of Betjeman Road, Stratford, all deny murder.

Jelf, Mallon and Windsor have all pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

The trial continues.

For a full report from yesterday's proceedings at Birmingham Crown Court see this week's Stratford-upon-Avon Herald.