Runner who found Morgan unconscious says boys told her everything was OK

Tuesday 15 March 2016

The first day of the trial of five teenagers accused of perverting the course of justice has seen video footage and photographs of the scene – and heard from the first member of the public on the scene.

The trial of the five boys – who deny the charges against them in relation to the events of 5 July last year – is expected to continue in the Youth Court all week.

The results of the post-mortem examination on 16-year-old Morgan was also revealed – the forensic pathologist Dr Russell Delaney said that morphine, codeine, etizolam and promethazine were all found in his system.

His report found that the medication had not been prescribed – and that the level of morphine in his system was within the range that might be expected to be a fatal dose.

The Court also heard from the first member of the public to find three of the boys as they carried Morgan out of the garage and round the corner into another road.

She said that the boys had initially told her that everything was OK – and were evasive later on about where they had found Morgan and whether they knew him.

The witness, Linda Allo, told the court that she had been out running when she came around a corner and saw three of the boys standing by Morgan, who was lying unconscious by the side of the road.

She said: “As I was rounding the corner I noticed ahead of me the three young gentlemen looking at a body, well, another person lying in the road.

“He was unconscious and he had foam coming out of his, I think it was his right nostril, I cannot be certain. Seeing the extent of his unconsciousness I realized that we needed assistance very quickly, it was beyond anything I could do to help with my limited skills.

“I said to them when I approach ‘is everything OK?’ they said ‘yes’.

“I used words to the effect of 'are you OK?', and they said they were. I said I did not think that was the case and we should get an ambulance.”

She then said that she spoke to another woman who had approached them while walking her dog – the second woman went home to get her phone to call for help, while Mrs Allo knocked on the doors of nearby houses to try to use a phone there.

She didn’t find anyone in, so she went back to the boys.

Mrs Allo said: “The other males were still there. I was worried that the casualty was going to choke because of the foam coming of his mouth. They checked his pulse and said there was a faint pulse. I suggested that he should be put in the recovery position, which they did.

“It is hard to recall when I asked questions but at one point I did ask where they had found him. It was not a clear answer but it appeared they had found him somewhere other than where he was now lying. It seemed he was in another lane, but it is not clear in my memory.

“I understood they had been to a party and the casualty was not an immediate friend of theirs.”

Earlier, prosecutor Howard Sharp QC – a former Solicitor General – said that the Crown’s case was that the boys were desperate to avoid having police go to the house where he had spent the night.

He said that the boys and Morgan had been to a party the night before, on the evening of 4 July, and that Morgan had consumed Morphine, Codeine and Etizolam, and needed help to walk back to the house where they stayed.

He slept in the garage overnight while the rest of the boys slept upstairs – when one of them checked on him at around 6 am on the morning of 5 July he had appeared to be sleeping, but when he was checked again at 9.15 am, there was blood and saliva coming out of his mouth and he had slipped into unconsciousness.

He said: “Morgan was lying on the garage floor. He was unconscious, there was blood and saliva coming out of his mouth, his airway was blocked, he either had a very weak pulse or no discernible pulse at all. Morgan’s condition was critical and obviously so.

“An ambulance was urgently required.

“[Defendant One] decided not to call the emergency services. We say that he feared, quite correctly, that calling an ambulance would trigger a chain of events that would result in the police attending his family home and searching the property.”

The emergency services arrived – the court was shown video footage from a camera on the front of the ambulance - and they started to question the boys, but Advocate Sharp said that even then, they were still not given honest answers.

Advocate Sharp said: “They were asked questions and as you might imagine, particularly by the paramedics, but even there they were all treated to unhelpful, vague and evasive answers that came nowhere near providing the sort of full and frank information that was required.

“And those answers had the underlying objective to prevent any link being made between Morgan and [the house]. No-one could apparently know that Morgan had spent the night at [the house] and that explains the answers that all of these people were given that morning.”

Because the Court proceedings have been opened, nothing that might lead to the identification of the defendants can be reported.

The case continues.