Telford angler tells court of death threat by brothers

An angling club secretary hit out in self defence at two brothers who threatened to kill him at a fishing competition in Telford over money they claimed he owed them, a court heard.

Darran Kelly said he used the head of a walking stick he accidentally broke just moments earlier to strike Richard and Philip Perks during the fight over a £35 debt, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard yesterday.

Kelly later told police in interview: "I thought I was going to get my head kicked in."

The brothers claim Kelly, 43, of School Road, Donnington, hit them with a hammer and he was the aggressor.

Kelly, match secretary of the Thomas Telford Angling Club, denies assaulting Richard Perks, causing him actual bodily harm, and assaulting his brother Philip by beating.

Kelly denies a further charge of possessing a hammer as an offensive weapon.

The court had heard how Kelly and the brothers became involved in a fracas at the end of a fishing competition at a pool off Lakeside Avenue, Leegomery, on April 3 this year.

The brothers told the jury they had gone to watch the match in which Kelly was fishing and eventually won.

Richard Perks claimed Kelly owed him £35 he had lent him to pay match fees but Kelly denied that in a subsequent police interview.

He told officers the money was for cannabis he had bought off Richard Perks about six months earlier.

The jury heard Kelly told police in interview after the disturbance that the Perks brothers had spent all day at the competition drinking strong lager and added: "I thought I knew it was going to happen."

He told officers: "They were saying they were going to kill me."

Kelly denied having a hammer and said Philip Perks came running at him and grabbed him.

In the scuffle Richard Perks then tried to hit him over the head with a can of lager, Kelly claimed.

He said he remembered hitting both brothers with the end of his broken walking stick in self defence but did not mean to hit Richard Perks on the head.

The trial continues.

By Simon Hardy