Teen was 'left to die in play area'

Luke Woolf, 18, never regained consciousness and died several months later in hospital.

Three days after the attack Scott Townson, 21, handed himself in to police telling them he had repeatedly punched and kicked Mr Woolf in self defence thinking he had broken into his Southampton home.

It was not until he had switched the light on that he realised he was a former fellow resident.

However prosecutors argued that the level of violence went beyond self defence causing Mr Woolf severe head injuries.

Michael Vere-Hodge QC told Salisbury Crown Court: “It went on to become a punishment, a beating.”

Apart from the head injuries, Mr Woolf had also suffered so much bruising to his face and body his mother did not recognise him, the court was told.

Jurors heard there were no independent witnesses in the case.

Townson and Mr Woolf had been tenants of a house in Radcliffe Road, Northam, run by the Rainbow Project and catering for single and homeless men under 25.

A few weeks before his death on October 25, 2008, Mr Woolf had been asked to leave because he would not keep to the rules.

But he did not return his keys and that night with apparently nowhere to stay, he had returned to the property and tried to sleep there before he was attacked.

Following his arrest, Townson admitted he had taken cocaine and drunk at least a dozen pints of lager on the night of the attack.

In a phone call to his mother, Caroline Coombes, he sounded panicky, distressed and was crying, the court was told.

Mr Vere-Hodge said: “He told her words to the effect he had basically beaten up a mate who used to live in the same house and asked her what he should do. She advised him to phone for an ambulance and the police.”

However it was Townson’s girlfriend, Bianca Mott, who he also alerted, who went by taxi to Radcliffe Road, and eventually made the 999 call.

Paramedics who arrived at the scene found Mr Woolf deeply unconscious and he was rushed to hospital where a scan revealed he had suffered bleeding between the skull and the brain and drag marks on the back of his body.

Jurors heard the teenager died several months later from pneumonia resulting from being in a persistent coma.

From blood found in the playground, it appeared the teenager had been lying there for some time, the court heard.

Inside the house more blood was found on the lounge carpet and a wall, and a pair of bloodstained shoes were also recovered from Townson’s room.

Mr Vere-Hodge said the area was cordoned off but Townson told a police officer at the scene he had stayed the night in Lumpy Lane with James Jones, a friend with whom he had been out the night before.

Townson later handed himself into police, telling them in a prepared statement he was the only person who should have been in the house that night but as he went into the living room in darkness, he was punched in the face and pinned against the wall. Frightened, he punched the other man five or six times.

“I reacted without thinking, I didn’t know what he would do,” he told detectives.

He then recognised Mr Woolf and rang his girlfriend because he was panicking.

He then saw the teenager sitting on the sofa smoking a cigarette and told him to leave.

He claimed he helped Mr Woolf outside and on to his bike but he fell off down a kerb. His girlfriend then arrived, he showed her where Mr Woolf was, and she phoned for an ambulance.

Jurors heard that Townson was charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent, but after Mr Woolf died, he was charged with murder and re-interviewed.

He then told detectives he thought he was fighting for his life. During the fight, Mr Woolf had fallen over his bike and he fell on top of him and after getting up, kicked him in the head and body.

When he realised who it was, he twice told him to get out. Mr Woolf started getting dressed but kept falling over and he eventually left the house without putting his clothes on. He put him on his bike but he fell off and lay in the middle of the road without moving.

Townson said he went back into the house, got his clothes and in panic dragged him to the park where he placed his bike and clothing nearby.

Townson, of Radcliffe Road, Northam, denies murder.

Proceeding.