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Arthur Gumbley: 'I was never there' says alleged pensioner murderer

A man accused of murdering an 87-year-old who died after an attack at his home has denied ever visiting the address and said he first heard about it on Facebook.

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Arthur Gumbley died three weeks after being attacked in his own home

Jason Wayne Wilsher, aged 20, said he had never been to Arthur Gumbley’s home in Little Aston, Stafford Crown Court heard yesterday.

The prosecution say that Wilsher, who was 18 at the time of the attack, is one of the men responsible for the assault at Mr Gumbley’s house in Endwood Drive on November 21, 2017.

The court has previously heard that Mr Gumbley was punched in the face, knocked to the floor and kicked whilst on the ground.

His attackers then ransacked the house, stealing jewellery belonging to his dead wife and other sentimental items before pulling out the telephone cord and fleeing the property, leaving him bleeding.

Mr Gumbley died three weeks later, on December 12.

Mr Gumbley was aged 87 when he died

Police say DNA evidence and telephone analysis linking Wilsher to Mr Gumbley’s address at the time and the purchase of a blue Mazda car used on the night of the attack, incriminate him.

But when asked by Peter Doyle QC, defending, when he first heard about the ‘violent attack’ on Mr Gumbley, Wilsher said it was on Facebook.

He said: “I have never been to any of those three addresses.

"I first heard about the attack on Facebook. My mate showed me.”

It is alleged his killers had earlier ransacked a house nearby Knighton Road in an almost identical attack.

Mr Gumbley's injuries can be seen in hospital before his death

Four days after the attack on Mr Gumbley, an 82-year-old man was beaten up in his Derbyshire home in an almost copycat raid by three men whose blue Mazda was seen on CCTV at the farm.

When asked by if he had ever been to Knighton Road and the isolated farm in Derbyshire, where a robbery took place, Wilsher replied that he had ‘never been there’.

Wilsher also said that he was not involved in the purchase of the blue Mazda vehicle.

The court heard about Wilsher’s life growing up and how he had shared a bed, clothes and more than one phone with his six brothers, living in Leicestershire.

Wilsher, of Barlestone Road, in Bagworth, Leicestershire, denies murder and conspiracy to rob. The trial continues.

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