A forklift driver jailed 11 years ago for attacking an ex-soldier who died of his injuries more than a decade later today admitted hit the victim in the head with a baseball bat.
Neil Sutherland, who denies murdering father-of-three Paul Mills by battering him with the metal bat, had told officers in 2006 he simply struck him on the shoulder.
The 35-year-old, who has already served a four-year jail sentence for assault, admitted he did hit the victim in the head, despite telling officers he only struck his shoulder when questioned during the original investigation, a court heard today.
Father-of-three Mr Mills suffered brain injuries in the attack in Southwick, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, in July 2006 and died aged 44 at his home in Heytesbury, near Warminster, in March 2017.
In what barristers describe as a ‘very unusual case’, Sutherland, from Trowbridge, who previously served a prison sentence for grievous bodily harm for the same attack against Mr Mills, now faces the charge of murder at Salisbury Crown Court, which he denies.
Neil Sutherland outside Salisbury Law Courts. He denies murdering Paul Mills with a baseball bat in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, in 2006
During an argument over the sale of the bat, Sutherland, 22 at the time, repeatedly struck unarmed Mr Mills a number of blows to the head.
The defendant told the court that he was being driven to Southwick by a friend on the day of the attack when they stopped in a lay-by as they saw Mr Mills and his friends approaching.
He said Mr Mills began ‘hustling’ him for money by trying to sell him a baseball bat because he wanted to buy some more cider.
Sutherland told jurors that after he got out of the car, Mr Mills ‘walloped him’ by hitting him around the head with his hand.
Sutherland said he then ran off to his father’s house, and his father drove him back to the lay-by and stood at the back of their van.
He said Mr Mills picked up the bat from the van and a struggle ensued between the pair.
Paul Mills died of complications during an epileptic fit in 2017 after suffering head injuries following an assault by Sutherland in 2006
The defendant said he did not want to return the bat to Mr Mills because ‘I was afraid he was going to hit me with it because he had a high temper and wallop me a second time but with the bat this time’.
Sutherland told the court: ‘He was losing it, proper off it, he was losing his patience, being aggressive.’
He told jurors that during the struggle, ‘I swung the bat at him, the bat did hit Paul’.
The defendant said: ‘Paul did not take kindly to us stopping and began walking up the pavement swearing.
‘I was worried because I thought he was going to finish what he had started earlier. I had the baseball bat with me and I told him ‘you’re not having the bat’.
‘We wrestled for the bat for a minute and he shouted abuse at me, before I struck him above the shoulder.
‘I then hit him on the left side of his body. Paul was holding his head and he turned and started walking away.
‘My dad said that was enough and told me to get in the van. He drove me home and during the journey he took the bat and threw it out of the window and onto the side of the road.’
Sutherland said his father then told him to get into his van as Mr Mills walked away ‘in a rage’.
Neil Sutherland (right) told Salisbury Crown Court he hit the victim Mr Mills in the head during a row in 2006
When defence barrister James Newton-Price QC asked Sutherland to clarify if ‘striking him above the shoulder’ meant hitting Mr Mills in the head, he replied ‘yes’.
Mr Newton-Price QC read a statement from Sutherland given to police the day after the altercation.
It read: ‘The stick was being pulled between us and I managed to strike him on the shoulder and side. My dad told me that was enough and we got in the car.’
When asked why he failed to tell the police he had struck Mr Mills in the head, Sutherland said: ‘I can’t remember.’
William Mousley QC prosecuting has told jurors the prosecution’s case is the epileptic fit which caused Mr Mills’ death was a direct result of an ‘extremely violent’ attack by Sutherland.
Mr Mills was left with catastrophic head injuries including brain damage and repeated epileptic seizures, the court has heard.
A pathologist who examined his body said there is an ‘unbroken link between the death and the assault in 2006’.
Mr Newton-Price QC told jurors they may decide Sutherland is guilty of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility and argued Mr Mills had been ‘taunting and bullying’ him.
Sutherland was originally jailed for four years on March 14, 2008, at Swindon Crown Court, after admitting grievous bodily harm with intent and was released in 2010.
Sutherland denies murder. The trial continues.