St Leonards man found not guilty of attempted murder

Today (Tuesday, November 3), a jury at Brighton Crown Court convicted Ian Bryan of one count of wounding with intent and one count of attempted wounding with intent.

The 58-year-old, of St Margaret’s Road, St Leonards, stood trial charged with attempting to kill 17-year-old Josh Catterall and 32-year-old Liam Roberts at an address in St Margaret’s Road on Wednesday, April 22.

Mr Catterall suffered a wound to his neck during the incident, the court heard, and required surgery. Mr Roberts suffered scratches and a small cut to the top of his left thigh.

On Tuesday, a jury found Bryan not guilty of attempted murder, but guilty of wounding with intent in regards to Mr Catterall, and guilty of attempting to wound with intent, in regards to Mr Roberts.

Bryan previously pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article. He is due to be sentenced on December 21.

During a week-long trial, which started last Monday (October 26), a court heard Bryan inflicted the injuries on Mr Catterall after confronting him and Mr Roberts about the loud noise coming from the basement flat the two men had been staying in while doing some work locally.

Bryan, who lived in the ground floor flat next door, told the court he had been at his flat on the evening of April 22 when he heard loud music coming from the basement flat below him.

By about 8pm, he shouted down to two men – Mr Catterall and Mr Roberts – who were in the garden and told them to turn the music down.

The three men got into a verbal confrontation, the court was told, and following this, Bryan called police and told the operator to look on their PNC (Police National Computer) to know what he was ‘capable of’.

Alan Gardner, prosecuting, claimed Bryan was referring to two convictions for manslaughter from 1995 when he stabbed both his female partner and another man to death after finding them in bed together.

In his testimony, Bryan claimed he was referring to a separate incident, from May 2000, when he was involved in a fight with bouncers at a nightclub. In that incident, Bryan grabbed a knife and broke the leg off a chair to use as a weapon, and later pleaded guilty to affray.

At 9.26pm on April 22, Bryan called police for the second time. He said he did so after hearing a bang on his window, which he blamed on Mr Catterall and Mr Roberts.

On the call to the police, he said: “A crime is about to be committed. I called about an hour ago, nothing has been done, and I am not going to be taunted anymore, I will react.

“I’m about to go next door and kill somebody and knife them...I’m on my way now. I don’t get taunted, I’ve never been taunted in my life.”

After hanging up on the police, Bryan armed himself with a knife, and went to confront Mr Catterall and Mr Roberts at their flat. In his testimony, Bryan claimed he went to ask the two men why they had been banging on his window and whether they should be in the flat given the country was in lockdown at the time.

He claimed he took the knife for protection as the two men were ‘much bigger and fitter’ than him.

Bryan said he ‘never intended to kill anybody’ when he left his flat that evening, but after trying to get the police to come he decided to confront the men about the banging on his window. He said: “Nobody would call the police and tell them they were going to commit a crime if that was their intention. That would be silly.

“I was not intending to commit a real crime. That was the final straw. I tried everything to get the police to come.”

Bryan told the court Mr Catterall punched him in the face shortly after the teenager opened the door. Bryan said he then produced his knife out of his tracksuit trousers and he and Mr Catterall started fighting. It was during this fight, he said, that Mr Catterall suffered the wound to his neck.

In police interview, Bryan claimed he had no idea how Mr Catterall had suffered his injury, claiming he had been knocked unconscious by Mr Roberts.

During his testimony, Bryan accepted he must have caused Mr Catterall’s injury, adding: “I do not remember how he (Josh Catterall) came by the injury but I must have caused the injury, but I do not know how.”

Bryan said the next thing he remembered was police arriving and shouting about a Taser, but did not remember being Tasered.

Having been arrested and while receiving care from paramedics, he said: “I warned you this was going to happen and if you had checked my history you would have known.

“They kept provoking me. I told you I was going to do this. There’s only one person going to prison. I’ve killed someone haven’t I and I have history. If you had come earlier this wouldn’t have happened.”