A MURDER jury has been told to focus on the circumstances leading to the killing of a man in a Llanelli house, not on the gruesome aftermath which saw the body being dismembered and incinerated.
Barrister Peter Rouch told the jury trying Phillip Hudson-Jones for murder that his client accepted killing Mariusz Majewski but that "something happened to trigger the events" of November 6 last year — and that was the crucial issue it had to decide on.
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It is the Crown's case that Hudson-Jones killed his Polish lodger after being asked and encouraged to do so by his friend Adrian Iwanowski — the killing being in retaliation for an earlier assault by Mr Majewski on Iwanowski.
Both men are accused of murder — a charge they deny. Hudson-Jones says he was acting in self-defence when he hit Mr Majewski in the head with an axe in November last year, while Iwanowski denies inciting him to do it.
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Today Swansea Crown Court heard a closing submission from Hudson-Jones' counsel, Mr Rouch.
The barrister said they did not have to "like or forgive" his client for what he had done to Mr Majewski's body after he died — the 31-year-old had his legs cut off and was put in a specially constructed fire pit and incinerated — but had to focus on what had happened in the week before the killing rather than after.
Mr Rouch described the deceased as a "hard, violent man" who was wanted in Germany in connection with a stabbing, and was on-the-run from a Polish gang operating in the Midlands from whom he had stolen a large quantity of amphetamine. He said his client was frightened of Mr Majewski and would go out of his way to avoid provoking him.
He said that day before he died Mr Majewski had been extremely agitated, believing Hudson-Jones had stolen a significant quantity of his amphetamine — which Hudson-Jones had — and he reminded the jury that a neighbour of Hudson-Jones had given evidence she heard a "huge" but very short argument in Hudson'Jones' house on the fateful day.
Mr Rocuh said all the evidence pointed to what Hudson-Jones maintained happened — that an angry Mr Majewski had launched a sudden attack on him with a hammer, and that acting in self-defence he had picked up an axe from his tool bag and struck him.
Mr Rouch dismissed much of the evidence of the co-accused Iwanowski that he had been threatened by Hudson-Jones into going along with the burning of the body — along with the suggestion that Hudson-Jones had said the pair of them set up a business killing people for money, something the barrister dubbed the "Felinfoel Assassination Bureau" — as "complete fantasy".
The court heard that Hudson-Jones's decision not to call the police and dispose of the was borne out of panic, panic that he had been involved in dealing and taking drugs, had a dead man in his living room, faced possible reprisal from Mr Majewski's Polish contacts, and had no witnesses as to what had happened.
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Mr Rouch said that once the decision had been made not to call the police immediately, "it was like a snowball rolling down a hill — it develops its own momentum, it is difficult to stop and cannot be pushed back".
The barrister reminded the jury of the earlier assault on Iwanowski by Mr Majewski - that had been triggered by Majewski believing Iwanowski had taken some of his stash of amphetamine, and had resulted in Iwankowski being treated in hospital for a head wound.
Hudson-Jones, of Pleasant View, Felinfoel, Llanelli, and Iwanowski, of Station Road, Llanelli, deny murder and an alternate charge of manslaughter.
Three other people are also on trial in relation to the death of Mr Majewski — Adam Goodwin, aged 37, of Caeglas, Cross Hands; Jason Henderson, aged 44, of Foelgastell near Brechfa; and 18-year-old Sophie Jones of Clos St Paul, Llanelli, are accused of assisting an offender. The trio deny the charges against them.
The case continues.
Read more at http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/llanelli-murder-trial-felinfoel-assassination-bureau-is-complete-fantasy/story-29846590-detail/story.html#EpeXVlFPuf8JAcm4.99
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