Quhey died after a bitter fight with his second cousin at motorway service station in June. Two men were today cleared of his murder
The Old Bailey erupted in fury and tears as two travellers were cleared of killing a young relative in a brawl at an M25 service station following a long-running feud.
Former amateur boxer Simon Baker, 22, battered Quhey Saunders over the head with a plasterer’s whisk at Cobham service station on June 26.
His cousin Mikey Coyle, 21, who was armed with a shovel, stood by and yelled ‘I’m the man’ during the fight which horrified staff and customers.
Baker had denied murder, saying he had acted in self defence as CCTV appeared to show him backing off as Mr Saunders prepared to strike him.
Both defendants were cleared of murder after the Old Bailey jury deliberated over two days.
Security officers packed into court and Judge Anthony Leonard QC called for silence while the verdicts were delivered.
Afterwards, the defendants appeared relieved in the dock but faced with a mixed reaction from the public gallery with shouts of ‘you know what you did’ and ‘not guilty’.
Pictures from the scene showed police battling to save Mr Saunders’ life after the fight
A female relative collapsed in tears in the courtroom while others stormed out yelling ‘I want justice served. I want justice served’, before being ejected from the building by guards.
Roofer Baker, who is one of six children, claimed Mr Saunders had been making threats against him – but had no idea why.
‘There was an ongoing threat. I had been barred from traveller events,’ Baker told the jury.
Baker told the court : ‘I live a good life. I don’t want anything like that. I don’t want to be getting in any problems with anyone. I live a quiet happy lifestyle.’
Mr Saunders had been to a weekend-long gypsy wedding party in Wales and was in the car with his friend Marian Barbu and his uncle and aunt Patrick and Lizzy Connor.
The Connors had been drinking in the car on the way home and stopped off at the services to buy more beer.
Friends described Mr Saunders as ‘such a lovely boy’ who, they said, was ‘taken far too soon’
Baker and Coyle had gone to the garage to buy petrol and food and saw the Saunders arrive in the blue Ford Focus as they were driving away.
They sped back the wrong way around the one way system to get back into the garage and confront Mr Saunders, who by now was in the shop with his aunt and uncle.
Prosecutors alleged that Baker and Coyle were ‘spoiling for a fight’.
After an argument inside the shop there were a series of scuffles around the forecourt and at one stage Baker ended up pinned to the side of the van.
Mr Saunders tore his shirt off for a fight and Baker claimed he called him ‘a sausage’ – a serious insult in the travelling community.
The fight which led to Mr Saunders’s death broke out at Cobham services in Surrey
It was then that Baker grabbed the lethal whisk and Coyle armed himself with the shovel before chasing Saunders into the shop, the court heard.
‘Mr Saunders received a catastrophic head injury by the whisk,’ said prosecutor Sandip Patel.
‘The defendants knowing at the very least that Mr Saunders was badly injured, ran off.’
Baker handed himself in at Guildford Police Station the day after Mr Saunders death on 29 June.