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6th october, 2015: To the enormous relief of friends and family in the public gallery of Court 1 at Bradford Crown Court, Jaxon Tite and Paul White were this afternoon found not guilty of unlawful wounding of James Blenkinsopp on 5th October, 2014. Their co-defendant, Robert Edwin Murphy, had yesterday changed his plea to guilty of unlawful wounding of Mr Blenkinsopp. A plea the prosecution accepted.
The jury also found Jaxon Tite not guilty of grievous bodily harm of Mr Blenkinsopp, and not guilty of assaulting Ms Lorna Arnall, by beating her. Only Mr Tite had faced charges of grievous bodily harm and of assault on Ms Arnall. His Honour Judge Benson told Mr Tite and Mr White they were discharged.
What was not disputed was that on 5th October, 2014 Mr Blenkinsopp was assaulted, kicked, kneed, punched and had part of his ear bitten off. Who bit off roughly one third of Mr Blenkinsopp's ear was not determined.
The trial took place over four and a half days. Contested events occurred in Scarborough, and the trial, said His Honour Judge Benson, had been moved to Bradford because of lack of a Court room in York Crown Court.
During his summing up His Honour Judge Benson told the jury, "You might think, as indeed I do, if you want to know, that it might have been better" had some form of ID parade been arranged at the time. His honour was referring to when investigation took place into events surrounding the serious assault on Mr Blenkinsopp.
The officer-in-charge of the case, detective constable Catherine Peet, brought garments to Court that the defendants had been wearing at the time and place where the various crimes for which they were tried took place. She carefully handled each package, unsealing fresh gloves before handling the exhibits.
When presenting his case, Mr Tim Capstick, for the Crown Prosecution Service, had warned the jury that the cctv footage they would be shown was of poor quality, which it was. Nor was the Court told that the footage showed when the wound to Mr Blenkinsopp's ear happened.
Mr Jaxon Tite was defended by Mr Ian Glenn QC, Mr Paul White by Mr Phillip Morris, and Mr Robert Murphy by Mrs Theresa Clark, from David Ake & Co in Leeds.
By Helen Gavaghan at Bradford Crown Court, 6th, october, 2015.
Freelance journalist, science writer, and editor of Science, People & Politics
For a matter of seconds a version of this url said that about two thirds of Mr Blenkinsopp's ear had been bitten - that was never the case. In Court only one third was mentioned ever.
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