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Jury retires to consider verdicts in Craig Robins manslaughter trial

A jury has retired to consider the verdicts in the trial of two brothers accused of the manslaughter of a disabled man in Cannock.

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Craig Robins was already paralysed after a car crash when he was attacked

Wheelchair user Craig Robins was 27 years old when he was attacked in his car, in Lomax Road, in Hednesford, on October 30, 2006, while searching for people he thought had damaged the adapted Vauxhall Astra.

Bernie Peter Smith and Kyle Neil Smith have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and had been standing trial at Stafford Crown Court.

The jury in the case retired to consider their verdicts to the charges at the court on Friday morning.

The trial had heard the defendants were part of a large group involved in an incident during which the alleged victim was stabbed, punched and kicked in 2006. And as a result Mr Robins, who was previously injured in a car crash was left brain damaged.

He subsequently died, aged 40, in 2019.

Gavin Brown, 36, of HMP Lancaster Farm, had pleaded guilty to murdering Mr Robins at a previous hearing. While James Ainsley Milligan, 42, of Hednesford Road, Cannock, pleaded guilty to his manslaughter. They will be sentenced at a later date.

Bernie Smith, 30, of Rowley Close, in Hednesford, and Kyle Smith, 33, of Pebble Mill Drive, in Cannock, both deny manslaughter.

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