Smethwick party stab death victim was trying to protect friend, court told by pal
A friend of stab death victim Ben Morutare has told a jury how the teenager was trying to protect another friend in a fracas before the fateful attack.
Wayne Hemley, 18, was at the same party as Ben with some friends on the night he was killed, in the early hours of July 28 last year outside Smethwick Old Guards and Comrades Club.
Giving evidence at the murder trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday, he said he left the club to go for a cigarette with two others when he saw a confrontation outside.
He said he could see another of their friends, who cannot be named for legal reasons, being 'attacked' by two or three males that were part of a larger group of around 15 people.
When asked by prosecutor Mr Michael Burrows what 16-year-old Ben, from Coalpool, Walsall, was doing, Mr Hemley said: "I could see Ben trying to stop the situation, but because of the size of the group that was there it was as if he was in the middle of it, trying to stop them from getting his friend."
He said he was asking the group to stop what they were doing, and trying to get them to back away from the friend.
The jury was then told that the large crowd dispersed, and as Mr Hemley, Ben and their four friends were considering calling a taxi to go home, they were surrounded by a larger group of between 20 to 30 people.
The friends were then separated, and Mr Hemley said he was chased down the road before himself being attacked, first with punches then with kicks as he lay on the floor. He suffered a split lip. When he returned to where he had last been with his friends, Mr Hemley said he found out Ben had been stabbed.
He said: "I could see large crowds, and just hear screaming and shouting. When I got closer I saw a girl that I knew, and she told me someone had been stabbed.
"Ben was just lying down, and there was just blood everywhere."
Andy Ly, aged 18, of Fulmer Walk, and Omar Robinson, 19, of Rann Close, both Ladywood, deny murder. They also deny violent disorder along with Jordan Campbell, 18, of Portland Road, Edgbaston; Kwamae Phillips, 18, of Gillott Road, Edgbaston; Tahj Mills, 18, of Waterside Street, West Bromwich; Tobias Blake, 20, of Kelsall Croft, Ladywood, and Aaron Parkins, 19, whose address cannot be reported for legal reasons.
The trial continues.
