Man accused of murdering Staffordshire pub owner with punch to neck ‘really sorry’

A man accused of murdering a pub owner who died after he was punched in the neck on a bar dancefloor has told a jury he is “really sorry” for his actions.

Billy Allison, 36, is alleged to have delivered a “very, very hard” punch with the “stance and skill of an experienced fighter” to 44-year-old Matthew O’Gara at Ricco and Loren bar in Lichfield on the night of May 24 this year, a trial at Stafford Crown Court heard.

He also left Mr O’Gara’s friend Adam Cooper, 62, with a fractured eye socket and nose after he punched him.

Allison, of Cropthorne Road in Shirley, Solihull, West Midlands, denies Mr O’Gara’s murder and section 18 grievous bodily harm with intent to Mr Cooper, but admits alternative charges of manslaughter and inflicting grievous bodily harm contrary to section 20.

The defendant took to the witness stand on Tuesday afternoon to answer questions from his barrister Gurdeep Garcha KC.

Wearing a black suit and tie and a white shirt, Allison clasped his hands together in front of him as he stood in the witness box.

He was told to keep his voice up several times as some in the packed courtroom said they could not hear him.

Asked by Mr Garcha how he felt about the fatal incident in May, Allison replied: “Just really sorry for what I did that night and really sorry my actions caused the end of someone’s life.”

He replied “definitely not” when asked by Mr Garcha if he had intended to cause really serious injury or death to the victims.

In response to a question about what he had intended when he hit Mr O’Gara, who was rendered unconscious by the punch to the neck and died in hospital two days later, and Mr Cooper, Allison said: “I’m not really sure to be honest, it’s a bit of a grey area, I’m not really sure why I did it at the time.”

Opening the Crown’s case last month, prosecution counsel Timothy Hannam KC said it was an “unprovoked and senseless” attack on the two men, who had been out drinking and dancing with friends.

Mr O’Gara, a publican who ran a country pub called The Plough on the outskirts of Lichfield, was “completely oblivious” and had his back to Allison on the dancefloor at Ricco and Loren as the defendant punched him in the side of the neck.

The force of the punch made a sound loud enough to be heard over the bar’s DJ sound system, Mr Hannam said, and was hard enough to break several bones in his neck and split an artery.

The bleeding caused a massive haemorrhage to the base of his brain which resulted in Mr O’Gara going into cardiac arrest.

The court heard Allison had been working as a groundworker at the time of the incident, sometimes working six or seven days a week, and would drink a “couple of times a month” or when Aston Villa, who he supports, would play matches.

He said he was usually a “happy drinker” and that alcohol would make him “chirpy” but said he would take cocaine possibly once a month when socialising to “fit in”.

The court also heard about Allison’s previous appearances in court, including a conviction for causing racially or religiously aggravated alarm or distress in 2009 when he was 19, which arose while he was being arrested for being drunk and disorderly.

He said he had a “silly argument” and could not remember exactly what he said to the officers who were arresting him, but that he thought it was “something racial”.

Asked by Mr Garcha why he pleaded guilty to the offence, Allison said: “I was guilty, I was in the wrong, so it was the right thing to do.”

He previously admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm after a fight when he was aged 18 and failing to disperse when directed to do so in 2017 in relation to an Aston Villa match in Wolverhampton.

He had also been cautioned in September 2007 for criminal damage after breaking into the scorer’s hut at a cricket club to escape the rain.

Allison said he pleaded guilty on each occasion because it was the “right thing to do”.

The defendant, who answered questions for around 30 minutes before court finished for the day, is expected to continue his evidence on Wednesday morning.

The trial continues.