A PUB doorman has told a court he did not call the police when he heard someone say “I’m going to cut you,” in an incident which saw a father-of-two killed in Canvey.
Matt Portwood, 42, died from two stab wounds to his neck following a fight outside the Haystack Pub, in Furtherwick Road, on Saturday, February 4.
Jamie Lewis, 24, of Bensham Lane, Croydon, Keith Aransibia, 59, of no fixed abode and Keiron Aransibia, 28, of Evelyn Denington Road, London, have been charged with murder.
The trial continued in Basildon Crown Court on Tuesday with doorman Adeyomi Ashola taking the witness stand.
Mr Ashola was quizzed on the events of that fateful night by Mark Cotter, mitigating barrister for Aransibia.
The court heard Mr Ashola remembered seeing someone held in a “bear hug” at the scene of the crime in the Iceland supermarket car park.
He said: “I thought the person being held in a bear hug was Matt because of some kind of belt on his jeans.
“I distinctly heard someone say ‘I’m going to cut you,’ I don’t know who it was said to as there were three people there at the time who was trying to intervene in the fight.”
Mr Ashola saw the incident from afar as Mr Portwood “pushed” him away and he went back to guarding the pub door across the street.
He added: “When I went with Matt I got to the front of the zebra crossing, stayed there for a while watching the incident develop then I went back to my door.”
Mr Cotter said: “You did not give an account to the police on the night, the first time you gave your account was during the video interview.
“I am asserting that you are unsure of what you saw.”
Mr Ashola told the court he did not call the police when he heard someone say ‘I am going to cut you’.
He added: “Our staff were already aware that the fight was going on, I didn’t call the police because [another] doorman Mark Curtis was already intervening at that point.”
Source – Echo News