I heard man scream as he was attacked, boy tells Shrewsbury busker jury
A young boy has described hearing the screams of a busker in an attack that resulted in the man's death.
The boy, who was 12 at the time, saw Ben Bebbington being kicked down steps onto a Shrewsbury towpath and heard the 43-year-old screaming as two men continued the attack, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
The boy, now 13, who can't be named for legal reasons, had been with Mr Bebbington on the night of September 6 last year after running away from his care home.
The court was shown a police interview with the boy, before he gave evidence via video link. In the pre-recorded interview, the boy said he had seen one of the men involved in the attack kicking Mr Bebbington in "his chest or his face" down the steps.
While he remained close to the top of the steps, the attack continued out of his sight.
"I think I saw him get kicked and think he landed on his back. I got really scared. It was pitch black," he said. He said that he heard a series of screams. "Then the last one was 'arghh' and it stopped," he said.
Mr Bebbington, 43, of Beaufort Green in Harlescott, died from a bleed on the brain, after being found unconscious on a canal footpath between Ditherington and Telford Way in the early hours of September 7.
The prosecution allege the attack was carried out by Stewart Doran and Bradley Davies. Davies, 18, of no fixed abode, admits joining in the attack but denies any criminal responsibility for Mr Bebbington's death.
Doran, 21, of Bainbridge Green, Harlescott, has already pleaded guilty to murder and will be sentenced at the end of Davies's trial.
