Murder accused tells jury he lied to police about rake because he 'did not want to get into trouble'

Ashley Harris has pleaded not guilty to both murder and a lesser charge of the manslaughter of Anthony Wootton, and on Wednesday he took to the witness box as the case for the defence began.

"I never attacked this man with the rake," Harris, aged 32, told the jury in his trial at Stafford Crown Court.

"I never thought I needed to mention the rake."

Under questioning from defence barrister Michael Ivers KC, Harris said he had "lied and stuck to it". He said: "I panicked, I was scared. There is nothing else I can say.

"I felt **** and I was scared."

Harris had given a statement to police on Monday, July 17, 2023, soon after it had become known that Mr Wootton's body had been found 180 metres away from the scene of an incident in Armstrong Close, the previous evening.

But he did not tell officers about the rake, which had been taken away and left under a neighbour's garden shed.

The jury was shown a video clip of the two men brawling on the paving in the close, with neighbours around. Harris said he had helped Mr Wootton's partner to get away from him after being attacked.

But Mr Wootton had got up and walked off after the brawl.

"There didn't appear to be anything wrong with him," said Harris.

The trial has heard that Mr Wootton had suffered blood loss after his spleen had been ruptured.

Jurors have heard evidence that he could have died between 30 and 90 minutes later. The prosecution case is that Harris had attacked Mr Wootton with a garden rake.

Harris said he had been told that Mr Wootton had died of an overdose. His body was found in the car park at Orient Court off Gresley Close in Woodside.

Mr Ivers went through the statement point-by-point, in which his client had given consistent information about the incident.

"I was trying to keep the rake out of the statement, I was covering up the rake," said Harris.

"Did you want to hurt him?" asked Mr Ivers.

"No, I did not."

"Did you take the law into your own hands?"

"No, I did not. I wanted it to stop."

He added that he wishes he had "told the truth" but that it "didn't feel like a big deal at the time".

"Someone else had removed it."

He also admitted switching off a doorbell video as part of "cover-up" about the removal of the rake from the scene.

Harris added that he had been accused of the "murder of a man I never attacked, not even with my fists".

He said he had become involved with Mr Wootton because he had been acting to defend himself, Mr Wootton's partner Carlene Garrett and his own partner Amy Smith.

He had given refuge to Carlene Garrett following a row between her and Mr Wootton. Harris said Carlene Garrett looked visibly injured with blood and a puffed-up eye.

Looking at the jurors, Harris said he would not have defended himself if he even thought he had attacked someone.

"There is no possible way I would have defended in court myself," he said. "I would have told someone."

Harris, sporting a tattoo under his right ear and with short cut hair, told his barrister that he felt "nervous" about speaking during the second week of his trial at Stafford Crown Court.

In another development in the case, the defence barristers on Wednesday for the first time spotted the existence of the separated parts of of a cylindrical solar light in a video that was shown to the jury.

The jury was allowed to examine a solar light that Mr Ivers presented as evidence.

Mr Harris was asked whether he knew if Mr Wootton had fallen on a rake or a solar light. He replied that he did not know.

Harris had lived in Armstrong Close with his partner, care worker Amy Smith and her young daughter for about 18 months after their relationship blossomed on Facebook.

He described his relationship with Amy as "amazing" and he also got on well with her daughter.

Mr Wootton, aged 41, had been staying with Carlene Garrett across the close from Harris and was on "hello terms" with him, the court heard.

"He said hello to me and I said hello back," said Harris, addressing the jury on Wednesday. He was asked to speak up so the jury could hear him across the court room a number of times by his barrister Michael Ivers.

"I had seen Carlene walking around but I have never said hello to her," he said.

Harris told the jury that he had asked Amy to call the police following a row between Mr Wootton and Carlene Garrett "a couple of months" before the events of Sunday, July 16. He added that his knowledge of the couple has been of "hearing arguing more than anything".

And one particular row "was loud enough to be heard from inside my property". The court heard that Mr Wootton had been arrested by police and Harris said it was "the only time I have done anything about it".

But the events of July 16 were when things escalated and Harris said he had heard "arguing and banging" from the other side of Armstrong Close a couple of times "from around lunchtime for a few hours".

Earlier on Wednesday prosecutor Darron Whitehead had closed the Crown's case with more expert evidence on Mr Wootton's probable last moments.

The court heard that Mr Wootton had lost 2.5 litres of blood - the equivalent of some 40 per cent of his body's supply - from his spleen where it had pooled into his abdomen.

Dr Richard Bailey, an expert in emergency medicine, provided written evidence on what would happen to a person after such an injury.

He said that the adrenaline caused by Mr Wootton's "fight-or-flight" response would have caused an elevated pulse that would push blood to his brain, heart and lungs. This would "allow him to walk" while he was rapidly losing blood.

Dr Bailey said that Mr Wootton would have become "increasingly confused and disorientated" before collapsing, going into a coma and dying.

The place where his body was found is some 180m away from Armstrong Close, the court heard.

Dr Bailey estimated that Mr Wootton's death would have occurred between 30 and 90 minutes after the incident.

The trial continues.