Pair left victim to die twice, jury hears (From Daily Echo)

Pair left victim to die twice, jury hears

11:02am Tuesday 1st July 2008 in Crime By Melanie Adams, Health Reporter

TWO MEN looking for drugs left a Southampton dad for dead after repeatedly stamping on his head, a court was told.

So savage was the attack in a city park, footprints were left on 34-year-old Scott Speirs forehead, who six months later is still lying unconscious in hospital.

The graphic details were outlined on the first day of a Winchester Crown Court trial in which Liam Edwards and Adam Stebbing are charged with his attempted murder.

The pair are also accused of actual bodily harm on John Ball in a separate incident on the same night.

Stebbing, 32, of North Front, Southampton, faces a further charge of grievous bodily harm with intent on Speirs.

Edwards, 27, of Cunningham Gardens, Bursledon, has already pleaded guilty to that crime.

Outlining the case prosecutor Christopher Parker told the jury how Edwards and Stebbing attacked Mr Speirs in Freemantle Lake Park on the early evening of December 22, last year.

The court heard how the pair had gone to the park in the hope of getting some drugs. When they bumped into the unemployed chef they asked him if he wanted to pool their money together in order to get cheaper drugs.

It turned to violence when Mr Speirs refused, leading to the pair kicking him to the ground and stamping on his head at least 12 times before leaving him for dead. Mr Parker, said: "For some reason these two young men set upon Scott Speirs. They set upon him in a joint attack. They inflicted upon him a savage beating.

"It concluded with their stamping on his head. We say in carrying out that assault, they intended to kill Scott Speirs. Together they left Mr Speirs lying on the ground bleeding from his head obviously unconscious."

The prosecution then claim that the pair assaulted John Ball later that same evening in the lobby of Norman House, a block of flats in Northam.

Following that attack it is alleged they then returned to Freemantle Lake Park to retrieve a mobile phone dropped during the earlier assault, where they found Mr Speirs still lying on the ground.

But the court heard they did nothing to help him. It was not until a few hours later that dog walker Jeremy Sullivan found Mr Speirs unconscious and bleeding and called an ambulance.

Mr Parker added: "It's clear they left him to die, in effect on a December night, not once but twice."

Edwards and Stebbing both deny charges of attemptedmurder and actual bodily harm. Stebbing also denies a further charge of grievous bodily harm with intent.

Proceeding