Driver denies knowing passenger would beat heavily pregnant ex-partner with hammer

Kyle Emery, now 21, is on trial accused of delivering Daniel Tandy to a house in Market Drayton in 2018.

Tandy’s ex-partner lived at the house and he knocked on the door before pushing his way in and hitting her several times with the hammer.

Tandy, 27, has already pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm but he will be sentenced after the trial concludes this week.

Emery, of Tennal Lane in Harborne, is accused of grievous bodily harm by joint enterprise, because of his alleged role as the driver on the night of the attack.

His co-defendant is Joanne Terry, 44, of Barnard Close in Birmingham. She was Tandy’s partner at the time and she is accused of perverting the course of justice – she told police that he was at home on the night and maintains that he must have left without her knowledge.

Emery’s Vauxhall Corsa was detected on roads between Birmingham and Market Drayton on the night of the assault, October 10, 2018.

Cloned plates

It had different number plates at different stages of the night, with one set of plates cloned from an unrelated car in Stoke-on-Trent.

The prosecution say that there was no way Emery would have driven his associate from Birmingham to Market Drayton without knowing what he was going there to do.

Prosecutor Mr James Dunstan told Shrewsbury Crown Court: “If they don’t know (your intentions) can you rely on them? Mightn’t they back out if they haven’t already signed up?”

Witnesses to the attack reported seeing a man parked up in a car near the victim’s house.

Ms Kelly Cyples, representing Emery, told the jury that the prosecution’s case against him was “speculation”.

She said that Emery was asked if Tandy could use his car and agreed immediately without knowing what it was for. She said that Tandy did not bring Emery into his “circle of confidence”.

She also pointed out that Emery was 19 at the time and said he was “young, naive and didn’t ask the right questions” about what Tandy was going to Market Drayton to do.

For Terry, Mr Anthony Bell said that she would not have “put her neck on the line” for Tandy in the way the prosecution alleges.

“Had she known what was afoot you may think it was clear she would call the police.

“He wasn’t the love of her life. It wasn’t for her a long-term relationship and by December he was gone.

“The idea she would get herself involved in covering up some serious crime like this is really quite difficult to swallow.”

The trial continues.