Murder trial continues into fatal stabbing outside Queen’s Head pub in Boughton-under-Blean near Faversham
17:46, 18 September 2024
updated: 10:37, 20 September 2024
The dying words of a dad fatally stabbed outside a village pub have been played to jurors in a murder trial.
Some of Adam Pritchard's last minutes alive in which he could be heard groaning, saying he could not breathe and even tragically acknowledging his pending fate were recorded by the landlord of The Queen's Head in Boughton-under-Blean.
The three clips, filmed from a window in the immediate aftermath of the 35-year-old having been knifed on March 13 this year, also captured the sounds of the desperate, and sometimes brutish, efforts to get him into the back of a car and to hospital.
Mr Pritchard could be heard repeatedly being told that he would not be left to die and urged to "Think of your babies" before he was eventually dragged into the vehicle and driven away.
The recordings, lasting just over two, three and nine minutes, were each played today (September 18) at Canterbury Crown Court as part of the prosecution case against William Cosier, who denies murder and manslaughter.
The jury of seven men and five women, as well as members of Mr Pritchard's family sitting in the public gallery, were warned before the second and third pieces of footage were played that they contained "some level of distress".
It is alleged Mr Pritchard, who lived in Faversham with his partner and their two young children, was murdered in an "act of aggression" by Cosier after a phone row that evening had escalated from "friendly banter" to a gun-wielding, violent confrontation in the street.
The victim had only been at the pub for five minutes when he was stabbed at approximately 10.40pm with a knife 34-year-old Cosier had grabbed from the kitchen.
The blade penetrated through his sixth and seventh ribs and plunged almost 23cm deep, causing the painter and decorator to suffer fatal blood loss.
Cosier, of Well Lane Canterbury, later told police he had acted in self-defence to stop Mr Pritchard firing a BB gun at him.
Despite the severity of his injury, Mr Pritchard, who was described as having "a heart of gold", was initially able to walk away from the incident.
CCTV from a nearby shop also showed him talking in the street to the man he had been rowing with over the phone - one-time close friend Craig Brabon - and who had been drinking in the pub with Cosier.
In the first of the landlord's recordings, it is said by the prosecution that Cosier could be heard warning "I'll kill you. You're dead" before Mr Pritchard replied: "I'm bleeding, you f****** ****."
He was then heard to say "Get him away. I've been stabbed" as another voice warned: "Don't grass. Don't grass. Don't f****** grass. Dirty grass."
However, by the time of the second phone recording, the severely injured dad could be heard complaining about not being able to breathe and proclaiming "I'm gonna die."
Urged to get in the car and not wait for an ambulance, he repeated: "I'm gonna die you idiot. I'm gonna die. I'm dying. Mate, I'm dying."
The recordings then continued for several minutes with the sound of Mr Pritchard moaning in pain as a second call for an ambulance was made.
He could be heard repeating his assertions to Mr Brabon as well as his friend Leigh Bean - who had driven him to the pub just minutes earlier - that he was dying and could not breathe.
At one point he was told by one of the men helping him: "Kids, you've gotta think of your kids and that.
"Come on, get in the car mate, I'll get you to hospital, the ambulance will be ages. You're gonna sit here and die.'"
The court heard the heavily bleeding dad was eventually pulled into the car by Mr Brabon and Mr Bean.
As they then headed to hospital, the pair intercepted an ambulance. However, Mr Pritchard's life could not be saved and he was pronounced dead shortly after midnight.
In the meantime, Cosier had driven away from the scene in his Mercedes.
At the start of his trial, jurors were told it is not "precisely" known when the fatal stabbing wound occurred or when the gun was discharged.
However, it is the prosecution case that Cosier did not act in self-defence and that his intent that night was to cause "at the minimum" really serious harm, "if not to kill" the victim.
Mr Pritchard's partner Taylor Denieffe told the jury how they had spent the day having lunch with friends at The Albion in Faversham before returning to their home.
She recalled him talking to Mr Brabon on the phone during the evening, and said the parts of the conversation she heard appeared as if they were "arguing one minute, then bantering, then arguing again".
But she said when Mr Pritchard had left the house, he had told her "everything had been sorted" and he was going to have a drink with Mr Brabon.
Ms Denieffe also told the court that her partner "wasn't into guns" and she had never known him to have a BB weapon.
When asked what Mr Pritchard was like, she said: "He was kind, generous, a really good dad, a really good boyfriend.
"He just had a heart of gold. He did everything for anybody."
The trial continues.
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