THE defendant in a murder trial professed his undying love for a prosecution witness and expressed his desire to marry her.

Kieran Cunnah, 18, of Durham Road, Blacon, was being questioned at Chester Crown Court where he is jointly charged with another male of murdering Christopher Garwell, 23, of Connah’s Quay, by attacking him on the city walls on June 3. Both deny murder.

Barrister Jeffrey Samuels, defending the 17-year-old co-accused, asked Cunnah about letters he had sent to the female prosecution witness while awaiting trial: “You were, as late as 29th October, professing your undying love for her, that you would love her forever, that you wanted to marry her as soon as you got out.”

Cunnah, a kitchen porter at Chester racecourse, agreed.

Mr Samuels suggested he had encouraged the female witness, who can’t be named, to give an account which matched his version.

But Cunnah retorted the 17-year-old would not give an account to “stitch up” his co-accused because they were brother and sister.

Earlier he told the court that he met the deceased for the first time at Grosvenor Park on the day of the alleged incident when a group of mainly young men from Blacon gathered to drink and in some cases smoke cannabis.

After leaving the park, he saw former defendant David Tushingham give Mr Garwell “a little slap” in Charlotte Court and punched the deceased himself. Asked by his own barrister why he had done this, he replied: “It was a quick reaction. I thought they was fighting or something.”

A short time later, the group were on the city walls when he overheard Mr Garwell say on a mobile phone ‘Get the boys down quick, I’ve been banged’ but said he “didn’t think nothing of it”.

Then Cunnah saw his co-accused, who can’t be named, punch Mr Garwell twice and fearing the deceased would exact his revenge on his friend, he kicked Mr Garwell in the face.

“I thought he was hard. He was saying how he snapped someone’s jaw about two weeks ago,” added Cunnah, who said the first kick “didn’t hit him properly”.

Cunnah then admitted punching the deceased before kicking him in the face again – alleging this was at the same time as his co-accused punched him – causing Mr Garwell to fall over and hit his head on the ground. Cunnah added: “If he wasn’t drunk he definitely wouldn’t have gone over.”

The case continues.