Shropshire Star

Jury retired: Man accused of fracturing skull with spirit level

A jury has retired to consider a verdict in a trial where a man is accused of fracturing another man’s skull with a spirit level.

Published

Kyle Vincent Ratcliff, 27, denies hitting Arthuras Oreskinas to the right side of his head with a spirit level during an altercation outside a house in Blakemore, Brookside, Telford.

The trial at Shrewsbury Crown Court heard Ratcliff attacked Mr Oreskinas on August 5 last year, then attempted to cover his tracks using a false alibi.

The victim had to be put in an induced coma with a bleed on the brain, and it was not known whether he would survive.

Prosecutor Antoine Muller said Ratcliff had received messages from his partner complaining about noise from neighbour Liam Hunt’s house. Two men were in Mr Hunt’s garden, and he got into an argument with them when asking them to leave. Ratcliff then went back into his partner’s house, the court heard, to get a pair of nunchuks, but settled instead for a spirit level.

Mr Oreskinas was in the back garden of the house with a friend who he had gone to collect, when the pair were confronted by the defendant, it was said.

Ratcliff, of Sixth Avenue, Ketley Bank, allegedly swung the spirit level at Mr Oreskinas’s head, fracturing the front of his skull. The force of hitting the ground caused a further fracture to the back of his skull.

He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder the next day but claimed to be in the pub all evening, before admitting he caused the injury but had not intended to.

During summing up on Monday, Mr Muller said Ratcliff was not acting in self defence, and text messages revealed he said, “I lost it, I lost control”. Mr Muller also alleged Ratcliff struck the victim and then said, “getting up, I don’t think so,” before threatening the victim’s friend. Ratcliff denied this.

Debra White, defending, said her client had initially lied in his police interview, but that did not mean he was guilty.

She said Ratcliff Mr Oreskinas and his friend were next door, and Mr Hunt had told her client he wanted the pair to leave.

Ratcliff was being shouted and sworn at, and things were being thrown at him and he was panicking, the court was told. He went inside and got the weapon and continued to have objects thrown at him as he vaulted the fence.

The defence said he believed Mr Oreskinas had something in his hand, and swung the spirit level and thought he had hit the fence. However, he had hit the victim.

Miss White added he was acting in self defence and it had been an accident.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.