Victim's skull was fractured with spirit level in Telford
A man used a spirit level to fracture another man’s skull and attempted to cover his tracks with a false alibi, a court heard.
Arturas Oreskinas was knocked unconscious by the blow during an altercation outside a house in Blakemore, Brookside, Telford, on August 5 last year.
He was put into an induced coma with a bleed on his brain and it was not known whether he would survive.
Kyle Vincent Ratcliff, 27, is accused of causing Mr Oreskinas grievous bodily harm with intent, but he claims he did not mean for the spirit level to make contact with the other man when he swung it.
Mr Antonie Muller, prosecuting, told Shrewsbury Crown Court that on the evening of the assault Ratcliff received messages from his then-partner Lindsey Martin complaining about her neighbours, and got a lift to the house.
Nunchucks
Mr Muller said Ratcliff confronted Ms Martin’s neighbour Liam Hunt and, according to a statement she gave police, said: “I’m going to smash your face in.”
He then went into Ms Martin’s house in search of his nunchucks, but settled for the spirit level when he could not find them, Mr Muller told the jury.
Mr Oreskinas was in the back garden of the house with a friend who he had gone to collect, when the pair were confronted by the defendant.
Mr Ratcliff allegedly swung the spirit level at Mr Oreskinas’s head over the garden fence, fracturing the front of his skull.
The force of hitting the ground caused a further fracture to the back of his skull.
Alibi
Rather than call an ambulance, Mr Muller said Ratcliff “scarpered” and tried to set up a false alibi.
He was arrested the next morning in Ketley on suspicion of attempted murder, but told police he had been at the pub the whole time.
He later admitted he had caused the injury to Mr Oreskinas, but said he only intended to swing the spirit level to intimidate the men.
Giving evidence through a Lithuanian interpreter, Mr Oreskinas denied he had been shouting, swearing and throwing bricks at Ratcliff, which the defendant claimed had led him to retaliate.
Ms Martin told the court in her evidence she watched the assault from her bedroom window.
Ratcliff, of Sixth Avenue, Ketley Bank, Telford, denies the charge and the trial continues.
