Quhey Saunders was hit over the head with a plasterer’s whisk at Cobham service station
A grieving mother whose 20-year-old son was beaten to death at a service station has vowed to never stop fighting for justice after two men were cleared of his murder.
Quhey Saunders was hit over the head with a plasterer’s whisk by 22-year-old former amateur boxer Simon Baker at Cobham service station in Surrey on June 26.
His cousin Mikey Coyle, 21, was armed with a shovel and yelled ‘I’m the man’ during the fight which horrified staff and customers.
Shocking video footage showed a topless Mr Saunders sprawled out on the floor after the horrifying incident.
Both Baker and Coyle were cleared by a jury at the Old Bailey after they had denied murder and claimed they were acting in self-defence.
The court room erupted in fury and tears when the two travellers were cleared of killing their young relative during the brawl inside the M25 service station.
Mr Saunders’ mother Noreen, 53, has now said how she ‘needs justice for her baby’ and won’t stop fighting until that is achieved.
She said the trial was ‘physical and mental torture’ because she had to watch terrifying CCTV footage of her son being attacked.
Speaking to The Sun Online, the mother-of-nine said: ‘I can’t do nothing until I get justice for my baby.’
Her family has set up a Change.org campaign to get support for the case to go to the Court of Appeal and are handing out flyers.
Ms Saunders, from Essex, said: ‘I’m still in shock. I wasn’t expecting it, not in a million years. I’ll grieve for my baby until I’m in my grave – I need justice.
Mr Saunders was on his way back from Wales when he pulled into the services with his family
Shocking footage showed a topless Mr Saunders on the floor following the attack at Cobham service station
‘I keep looking for him, I keep thinking I see his face but it’s destroyed my life.’
During the trial, Baker, a roofer who is one of six children, claimed Mr Saunders had been making threats against him.
Baker told the jury: ‘There was an ongoing threat. I had been barred from traveller events.’
The court heard Mr Saunders had been to a weekend-long gypsy wedding party in Wales and stopped off at the services where they bumped into Baker and Coyle.
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.
Simon Baker said that he feared for his life after watching a video of Mr Saunders scoring 950 points on a boxing machine
Mr Saunders tore his shirt off for a fight and Baker claimed he called him ‘a sausage’ – a serious insult in the travelling community.
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.
Baker told the court he had feared for his life because he had seen Facebook posts of Mr Saunders scoring a high 950 points on a ‘punch your strength’ machine.
Following his death, Mr Saunders’s family said in a statement: ‘Quhey was a very kind hearted boy, always full of laughter, loved life and loved enjoyment. He was very respectful to his elders and the sick.
‘He was always laughing, always happy and loved every day of life. He lived life to the full and his life was taken very young.
‘He had his whole life in front of him and was taken for no reason at all.’