'Unsurvivable' punch killed pub boss, court told

A pub boss died after an "unsurvivable" punch to the neck, a court has heard.

Matthew O'Gara, who ran The Plough pub in Huddlesford, Staffordshire, died in hospital two days after the incident at the Ricco and Loren bar on Market Street, Lichfield, on 24 May.

Billy Allison, 36, who has admitted manslaughter, delivered a "very, very hard" punch with the "stance and skill of an experienced fighter", the jury was told. A trial over a murder charge against him opened at Stafford Crown Court earlier.

He has also admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm against another man, Adam Cooper, during the incident, but denied doing so intentionally.

The court heard how O'Gara, 44, suffered a "full force" punch which broke several bones in his neck and split an artery which provides blood to the brain. He never regained consciousness after the attack.

"It caused an injury that was unsurvivable," said prosecuting barrister Tim Hannam KC.

The force with which it landed made a noise loud enough to be heard over the sound system in the bar, he added.

Hannam told the jury Allison, of Cropthorne Road in Shirley, Solihull, West Midlands, had been visiting Lichfield with a group of friends including his girlfriend Charlotte Dean and friends Ryan Bridge and Ben Cullen, and had been drinking throughout the day before the attack on the two men, who he did not know.

Cooper, who was part of a group at the bar with O'Gara and others, suffered a fractured eye socket as well as a fractured nose and damage to a dental implant, the court heard.

CCTV footage shown to the court on Wednesday showed Allison take three steps towards Cooper, before striking him twice.

Later footage from a courtyard at the back of the bar shows Cooper receiving help in a wooden shelter and Allison leaving through a gate.

The jury was told how after he left the scene, Allison swapped t-shirts with Cullen, and had tried to pull the top over his head to conceal his face from a camera.

At about 03:00 BST on 25 May, the pair went to a hotel where Cullen was booked to stay, despite Allison being booked into another hotel in the city. He was arrested at 05:00 by police.

The court heard the group they were with had been drinking at various venues around the town from about 15:40 until around 23:20.

Allison, who was described as 6ft 5in (195cm) and "muscular in build", took cocaine on the day, Hannam said, adding that witnesses had described the group as becoming "increasingly loud and obnoxious".

Hannam said that at 23:17 O'Gara and Cooper and their group made their way to the small dance floor area in Ricco and Loren, close to where Allison and his group already were.

Allison had a "physically controlled, steady poise" in the moments before the attack the jury was told.

Hannam said Allison came at O'Gara from behind, meaning he was "oblivious" to the impending attack and was therefore unable to defend himself.

Allison subsequently failed to help O'Gara and instead left the bar through a back entrance with Cullen.

He alleged Allison was "thinking rationally" and was "entirely in control" of his actions at the time of the incident, adding that the jury was entitled to consider his size, strength and obvious skill as well as his actions before, during and after incident.

"[O'Gara] died because the defendant decided to punch him as hard as he could in the neck, and he died because of the serious damage caused by that punch," he said.

"He died because of the serious damage caused by that punch. This, the prosecution say, is not a one-punch manslaughter."

The trial is expected to last for 10 days.

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