Shrewsbury murder trial: Jury expected to go out tomorrow over death of former Prue Leith chef
Tragic case involving homeless alcoholics nears its conclusion
A murder trial jury is expected to begin deliberations tomorrow over the death of a former high-flying chef, who was found face down and naked under a blood-stained sleeping bag.
Adam Rowson, aged 26, is accused of murdering Alexis De Naray, who was found dead in a derelict building near the Shelton Water Tower in Shrewsbury on Friday, June 27 last year.
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A trial at Stafford Crown Court has been ongoing for the last fortnight, with the jury being told Mr De Naray had 17 rib fractures, a brain haemorrhage and a ruptured spleen.
Prosecutor Sally Howes KC and Michelle Heeley KC, defending, made their closing speeches today (Tuesday, April 7).
Judge Avik Mukherjee began summing up the case and is expected to finish tomorrow morning, before the jury of seven men and five women go out to deliberate.
Over the course of the trial, the jury has been told how Rowson and Mr De Naray met at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on the evening of Monday, June 23 last year.
They were seen on CCTV walking in the direction of Rowson’s squat, near the water tower. It was there that Mr De Naray was found dead later in the week.
Rowson accepted causing the injuries, but claims Mr De Naray was naked and making advances towards him, and that he was acting in self-defence when he hit him, threw a vodka bottle and a chair at his head, and struck him with two saucepans.
Ms Howes said: “These injuries speak to a frenzied attack on a man who was cowering from his attacker.”
She said Rowson’s evidence that the homeless community is “very wise” and “works as a team”, coupled with the moment he demanded a lift into Shrewsbury from a man his considered “rich and privileged” as demonstrating an attitude that he feels he can “demand from others what he, himself, does not have”.
“There are two main issues for you to resolve, self-defence and intent,” Ms Howes told the jury.
Ms Heeley said that Rowson had been “polite, respectful and tried to explain what happened” when he took to the witness stand.
“He’s only 26, bespectacled and is fitted with a stoma bag,” she said, adding he was “hardly the image you expect” of someone charged with murder.
She suggested he had given Mr De Naray “refuge” on the night they met.
She insisted the fight at the derelict building “wasn’t a one-sided assault”, saying Rowson suffered injuries and bled.
Ms Heeley also pointed to the evidence that Mr De Naray was naked and bigger than Rowson, asking the jury: “What would you do in that situation? Would you let the person approach and not do or say anything? Or would you react?”
Rowson, who is from Shrewsbury but of no fixed abode, denies murder. The trial continues.