Son accused of murdering father walked away after attack with 'swagger', court hears

Marek Arent, 73, suffered a brain injury after being headbutted and punched, resulting in him falling over in the front garden of a property in Horden Road, Whitmore Reans, in Wolverhampton, on September 18 last year.

Giving evidence on Thursday at Wolverhampton Crown Court, Horden Road resident Peter Gardener-Newman told the jury that he saw the attack from a ground floor window of his home opposite.

He told the jury: "I heard running outside and shouting. It continued for about a minute so I decided to get up. The voice was quite loud.

"It was in another language, but the tone was angry and aggressive. At first I thought it was just someone walking past, but it went on for a bit.

"When I looked out I saw two men by the victim's house. They were standing near some bins. One man held the other over the wheelie bin. Then I noticed a woman to the right."

"He had him pushed down onto the bin. he was practically shouting into his face. The chap who was bent over the bin had his back to me. The other guy was to the side and at a profile to me.

"The shouting to his face was very aggressive, loud and like a monologue. I got the feeling that they knew each other. The words being said sounded like different words. It was not repeated words. I didn't understand the language.

"The other man wasn't saying anything. His hands were down at his side. He didn't move or say anything. He did nothing.

"The woman was walking back and forth to them a few times. She looked like she was scared to intervene.

"Then he just headbutts him very hard, very fast and I saw the guy's head go backwards and then forwards again. Then he quickly lets him go and I saw the person who had been headbutted again with his hands by his side.

"He was swaying front to back. Then all of a sudden he flares up and punches the guy to the head and that punch was very fast."

Mr Gardener-Newman said on a scale of one to ten, the force of the punch was ten.

"When he hit him, his head goes back and his feet came up. I could see it over the the wall," he said.

He added that defendant Dawid Arent, 33, acted with "bravado" and walked away with a "swagger" afterwards.

The jury previously heard that Marek Arent was visiting from Poland when his son attacked him after accusing his father of “beating” his mother and treating him badly as a child.

Dawid Arent, of Horden Road, denies murder. The trial continues.