Darren Bonner’s body was found behind a wall in Northumberland with irreversible brain damage that led to his death last July
A garage worker died 16 days after his boss ‘choked the life from him’ then dumped his body in a shallow grave at a remote seaside beauty spot, jurors heard today.
Darren Bonner’s naked body was found in woodland, behind a dry-stone wall on Shore Road in Northumberland with irreversible brain damage that led to his death last July.
Richard Spottiswood, who ran a garage business that Mr Bonner had worked at, believed he had been ‘double crossed’ by the 24-year-old and deliberately choked him during a confrontation, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
Spottiswood, 34, of Jarrow, denies murder and is being tried by a jury.
Prosecutor Tim Roberts QC told the court a passerby had heard ‘snoring and moaning’ as he walked past the undergrowth near Cresswell Caravan Park and alerted the police on July 10, 2017.
Officers who arrived at the scene heard a similar sound and climbed concrete boulders in a gap of the dry-stone wall to investigate.
Mr Roberts told the court: ‘In the wood behind the wall they came upon a naked man, lying in an open, dug out, shallow grave in the earth.
‘He was curled up in the foetal position, moaning and shivering.
‘Although he was actually breathing, he was unresponsive to the officers attempts to rouse him.’
Richard Spottiswood (pictured), who ran a garage business that Mr Bonner had worked at, believed he had been ‘double crossed’ by the 24-year-old and deliberately choked him during a confrontation, Newcastle Crown Court heard
The court heard Mr Bonner, of Sunderland, was taken to hospital, where he survived for 16 days but never regained consciousness.
He died because his brain had been starved of blood and oxygen, which led to extensive brain damage, jurors heard.
Mr Bonner also had marks on his back, which Mr Roberts said was caused by ‘at least 12 blows from a rod-shaped weapon’.
Jurors heard in the days before he was found injured, Mr Bonner had told his ex-girlfriend that he had fallen out with ‘spotty’, who he said was ‘going to do me in’.
The woman told police Mr Bonner had worked for Spottiswood at his garage but the men also tended cannabis farms together.
The court heard on the weekend before he was found fatally injured, Mr Bonner had joined Spottiswood on a family holiday at Creswell Towers holiday park.
Prosecutors claim he was dumped in the shallow grave, from the back of Spottiswood’s white van, shortly before he was found.
Spottiswood told police it was during the mini-break that the hole had been dug for the men to bury firearms.
Prosecutor Tim Roberts QC told the court a passerby had heard ‘snoring and moaning’ as he walked past the undergrowth near Cresswell Caravan Park and alerted the police on July 10, 2017. Pictured: General view of Cresswell Caravan Park
However, an argument had broken out while they were there because he was suspicious Mr Bonner had ‘betrayed him to a rival drug dealer’.
He claimed during the course of the exchange, Mr Bonner had confessed he had revealed the location of a cannabis crop to the rival, who had gone on to steal it.
Spottiswood said that during the row Mr Bonner had grabbed for the bag of guns and so put him in a headlock during a struggle, out of self defence.
He said he had removed Mr Bonner’s clothes in ‘panic’.
Mr Roberts said prosecutors reject the suggestion of self defence.
He told jurors: ‘He knew exactly what he was doing, there and then he caused the irreversible brain damage which led to death.
‘Mr Spottiswood, the prosecution contend, wasn’t acting in reasonable and necessary self defence. He was deliberately choking the life from someone he trusted but had double crossed him.’
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