Driver sat outside industrial unit 'unaware brutal murder was happening'
A man accused of killing father-of-five Carl Woodall sat outside an industrial unit for two hours totally unaware a murder was taking place, a court heard today.
Mr Woodall was stripped naked before being left for dead with 141 injuries at a unit at Waterside Industrial Estate off Doulton Road, in Rowley Regis, on June 28 last year.
James McGhee said he drove Mark Campbell and Simmion Goldbourne from Nottingham to Rowley Regis in his dad's car and remained outside as the pair went to burgle the unit.
After two hours the pair returned, with cash, and he drove them back to Nottingham
Mr McGhee admitted he knew they were going to steal drug money from the unit, which the court previously heard was allegedly being used as a drug factory, but had no idea they had committed murder until he was arrested.
He said: "I am disgusted at what happened. It is horrific what happened to that man. I was outside, I only helped them get in the place."
McGhee, 28, told jurors he was happy to help out with the robbery as the police would not get involved because "you cannot report to the police what should not have been there in the first place".
McGhee admitted to being paid to drive Goldbourne and Campbell to Rowley Regis.
He did not have enough money to have data on his mobile phone and had to use a hotspot from one of the other defendants to get directions to Rowley Regis.
Andrew Vout QC defending McGhee said he would not have taken his mobile phone with him if he thought he was taking part in a murder.
McGhee, wearing a suit, did not make eye contact with his two co-defendants during evidence and was kept back in court until they had left the dock.
Carl Woodall, 44, lived and ran a workshop in Rowley Regis, and the prosecution claim he was the victim of a joint enterprise murder involving Mark Campbell, Simmion Goldbourne and James McGhee.
Woodall's stepson Cieran Evans met Campbell, from Nottingham, in Birmingham Prison four years ago where they were serving prison sentences and they kept in touch.
Campbell visited him weeks before the murder and stayed at his home before leaving abruptly.
Campbell, of Glaisdale Drive East, McGhee, of Stanstead Avenue, both in Nottingham, and Goldbourne, of no fixed abode, all deny murder.
The trial continues.
