ALLISON DENIES MURDER OF LICHFIELD PUB OWNER

Billy Allison denies murdering pub owner Matthew O’Gara after punching him in the neck at Ricco and Loren bar in Lichfield, Stafford Crown Court heard. Allison has admitted manslaughter. He also denies causing grievous bodily harm with intent to O’Gara’s friend Adam Cooper, but admits inflicting grievous bodily harm. Opening the prosecution’s case on Wednesday, Timothy Hannam KC called the punches a “completely unprovoked and senseless attack”. He told the jury that Allison did not know either man.

O’Gara ran The Plough, a country pub on the outskirts of Lichfield. Hannam said O’Gara had his back to Allison on the dancefloor when Allison punched him in the side of the neck on 24 May. Allison, who lives on Cropthorne Road in Shirley, Solihull, had visited Lichfield with his girlfriend Charlotte Dean and friends Ryan Bridge and Ben Cullen, according to Hannam. The group had drunk alcohol throughout the day, Hannam said. He also told the court that Allison had used cocaine that day.

Hannam said the punch broke several bones in O’Gara’s neck and split an artery. He said the resulting bleeding caused a haemorrhage at the base of O’Gara’s brain and led to cardiac arrest. O’Gara lost consciousness before he hit the floor and never regained it, according to the prosecution. He died two days later at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Hannam said Allison then punched Cooper, fracturing his eye socket and nose.