Father and son deny assault

Jordan Mansell said that he was punched to the temple in the street in Pontesbury. He fell to the floor and then found people piling onto him, he said.

Mansell, 20, and his father, Kenneth Mansell, 38, both of Kingsway, York, each deny causing grevious bodily harm with intent, two charges of assault by beating and criminal damage.

A jury at Shrewsbury Crown Court has heard that the father and son are alleged to have set upon Mr Gordon Riley after the party in November 2015. When Mr Riley's wife and daughter tried to intervene they too were assaulted.

Footage from CCTV cameras of the altercation has been shown to the jury.

Giving evidence at Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday Mansell said he had been to his auntie’s party in Pontesbury and had been walking back to his grandmother’s house with his father and two other people when the incident happened.

He said he was running to catch up with his father when cans he was carrying fell on the floor and trousers that he had borrowed for the party, fell down. The court has heard they had been to a fancy dress party.

Mansell said: “I was bending to pick the cans up, someone shouted ‘are you Kenny Mansell’s son’ and then I felt a punch to my left temple."

“I went to the floor and people piled onto me. I was trying to get myself out from underneath and I remember my father’s voice telling people to get off me.”

He denied assaulting Gordon Riley and Katie Riley.

Kenneth Mansell said that as he walked down the street the friend he was with said he was going home. He told the jury he decided to go back to the village hall and carrying on partying and so started to walk the other way.

“Then I heard someone say ‘that’s Kenny Mansell’s son’ or something like that so I turned round and saw Jordan on the floor with someone on top of him.

“I went back and started to pull the chap off my son. There were women screaming. I got my son and we walked off. I didn’t kick or hit anyone.”

The trial continues.