A man has gone on trial accused of delivering the blow suffered by an Ellesmere Port restaurant worker just days before he died.
Liverpool Crown Court heard today (Wednesday, November 4) that former resident of Ellesmere Port Peter Taylor, 31, now of Westfield Crescent, Runcorn, ‘poleaxed’ Lukasz Piotr Sawinski after the man went to help a friend under attack.
Mr Sawinski had been heading home with his friend Rafal Otenburger after a heavy drinking session when they encountered three other men who had also apparently been drinking.
An argument developed and the two Polish men walked off but the trio followed them so they turned to face them as they did not want to reveal they lived further down the road, claimed Henry Riding, prosecuting.
Mr Otenburger was not sure what he was going to do as he was so drunk he could hardly stand and could not have fought them but ‘without warning or provocation the defendant Peter Taylor punched him with his right hand to the left side of the face causing Mr Otenburger to drop to his knees’.
He was then kicked to the ground and as he lay there he saw his friend, Mr Sawinski coming towards him, apparently to assist him, but as he did so Mr Sawinski passed by Taylor who then punched him to the head from behind, alleged Mr Riding.
He said: “It is not intended as a pun but the blow literally poleaxed Mr Sawinski who dropped to the ground, hit his head either on the road surface or the pavement and was knocked unconscious for some minutes.”
His friend stood up and asked the men to help his friend but Taylor told him to ‘f*** off’ and the trio entered a car and drove off.
Mr Otenburger managed to rouse his friend and declined a neighbour’s offer to call an ambulance as he thought he would be all right, said Mr Riding.
But the court heard that the victim went to bed and stayed in his room at the home he shared with Mr Otenburger and Mr Otenburger’s girlfriend in Woodfield Road, Ellesmere Port, for three days.
On the third day, April 29, this year Mr Otenburger noticed that his friend was talking like a 10-year-old child and, concerned for his friend, persuaded him to return to bed.
The next day, still concerned, he called an ambulance and at hospital it was found he had suffered a fractured skill and bleeding to the brain.
After initially improving his condition deteriorated and he died on May 12, which was his 31st birthday.
Mr Riding said that when arrested and interviewed 31-year-old Taylor, formerly of Eton Road, Ellesmere Port, allegedly admitted striking the blow that knocked Mr Sawinski to the ground but maintained he was acting in self-defence as Mr Sawinski came at him and he feared for his safety.
But Mr Riding told the court, where the victim’s father Marek sat with an interpreter translating proceedings for him, that a neighbour heard a man who knocked someone to the ground shout: “That’s two of you sleeping now.”
And another woman neighbour told police that she saw the victim being struck ‘right off his feet’ and heard his head thud as it hit the ground. She added: “It was an evil punch and I was shocked.
“The Polish lad was just standing there, he just walked up and just dropped him, he did not have a chance.”
Taylor denies manslaughter and also common assault.
The case continues.
