Leigh Park murder trial: Trio accused of assisting Kevin Batchelor after George Allison's death insist they 'knew nothing'

Kevin Batchelor, 26, inflicted a ‘catastrophic’ fatal blow to the back left shoulder of George Allison, 21, at Cherelle Ash’s home in Tichborne Grove, Leigh Park, after 11pm on Saturday May 23 last year, jurors heard.

They were joined by friend Chellby Ferrol, and together had been enjoying a ‘bubbly’ evening until tensions started to escalate between Batchelor and Mr Allison, Winchester Crown Court heard.

The men ended up fighting before Mr Allison was stabbed while Ms Ferrol was left with a large gash to her upper left arm after trying to ‘get between’ the friends.

After stabbing Mr Allison and riding off on his bike, it is alleged Batchelor arrived at his 34-year-old sister Hayley Batchelor’s home in Highwood Lawn, Havant.

She denies a charge of assisting an offender, along with her boyfriend Lewis Turner and Barry Baker who was at the address with his girlfriend - a friend of Hayley Batchelor.

It is alleged Batchelor’s clothes were put in a washing machine and he changed while at the address.

Baker, 39, of Oracle Drive, Widley, is accused of disposing of the knife, after riding in a taxi with Turner, 32, Fore Street, Camelford, Cornwall, before it was alleged the knife was disposed by Baker in a storm drain near The Swallow pub, in Dunsbury Way, Leigh Park.

Baker denied the allegation when quizzed by police with him saying it was only the second time he had met Batchelor - with him only realising that night he was Hayley Batchelor’s brother.

‘The door knocked and in Kevin comes. I was in the front room doing crack (cocaine) and smoking it. I could hear voices. He was speaking to his sister and Lewis,’ he told officers during the interview.

Baker, sitting in the dock near Batchelor and the co-defendants as the interview was read out to the court, told officers Batchelor was ‘chatting away’ but that he was not someone he would ‘associate with’. ‘He has too much jail talk. He’s not my type of person,’ he said.

‘I think he’s an idiot. I don’t like people like that.’

Baker said Batchelor ‘seemed normal’ and said he ‘didn’t hear anything’ about the incident.

Baker went on to say how himself and Turner got in a taxi to go and ‘score’ more drugs. He said the taxi stopped somewhere in Leigh Park where crack cocaine was passed through the window before he went to get cannabis on the way back.

Baker got out of the car in a location close to Dunsbury Way to collect the drugs before sprinting back to the taxi and then returning to Hayley Batchelor’s home where her brother was still acting ‘normal’.

During the interview with police Baker insisted he ‘didn’t see any clothes being washed’ or ‘hear anything’. But he then said: ‘They were very secretive. They could have done (the washing). It’s her brother, you know what I mean.’

After apparently finding out about the killing, Baker added: ‘I was baffled when they told me what happened.’

Meanwhile Turner released short statements to police followed by ‘no comment’ interviews. He said he ‘didn’t know’ about Batchelor being accused of murder and did not help dispose of the clothes or knife.

‘If Kevin Batchelor was wearing my trainers, it was without my permission,’ he said in his statement, before adding he could not recall the taxi journey. ‘I know nothing of a knife being disposed in a storm drain,’ he said.

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Hayley Batchelor also told cops she was oblivious of the killing and did not try and cover it up by washing clothes and providing her brother with a fresh outfit.

She guessed that Batchelor might have turned up at her address around 9pm - 10pm but admitted she was not sure if that was the ‘right time’. She claimed he left within about two hours.

While Batchelor was there she said: ‘He was fine. He was stood in the kitchen with a blue top.

‘He had old scratches or scars (on his chest) and I said “how did you do that?” And he said “by jumping on a fence”.’

Hayley Batchelor said she was not close to her brother and apart from one occasion recently she had not seen him ‘for years’ with him ‘in and out of prison’.

Hayley Batchelor insisted she did not use the ‘quiet’ washing machine to clean her brother’s clothes but when asked if he had, she told officers: ‘I couldn’t tell you.’

Batchelor, of Camborne, Cornwall, denies murder and claims he was acting in self-defence. He also faces an alternative to wounding with intent on Ms Ferrol while trying to inflict GBH on Mr Allison – with this charge being unlawful wounding to Ms Ferrol.

(Proceeding)

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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