Andrew Jones

Andrew Jones was killed in a street fight after being punched and hitting his head on the pavement after falling.

He was found on the ground in Hanover Street at the junction with Gradwell Street just before 3.30am on Sunday, 9 March 2003 with serious head injuries. He was taken to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital where he died the next day.

He was said to have been attacked by a gang of thugs and that there had been a good number of witnesses around.

A man was tried for his manslaughter but was acquitted.

He had been walking along Hanover Street on his way to a nightclub whilst on a night out celebrating his cousin's birthday. He had gone out with about 30 friends and relatives, but had become separated except for one friend. Andrew Jones and his friend went to look for their other friends and were walking along Hanover Street to a nightclub when they encountered a group of five other youths and one of them accused Andrew Jones of banging into him on purpose. It was said that twenty witnesses saw Andrew Jones hold up his hands, apologise and say that he didn't want any trouble when out of the blue someone punched him in the face, breaking his jaw, and knocking him to the ground. The fall was said to have been hard enough to break his skull.

Before being punched he had been marched down the street a way by the youth's. They were seen by a man and a woman from Wales who said that there was a youth in front of Andrew Jones and another one was to his side and that they saw a person punch Andrew Jones. They said that they were confident with their identification and could easily pick the man they saw punch Andrew Jones out from a crowd.

When the police arrived the other youths were still there and one policeman managed to grab one of the youths as he was running away whilst another policeman said that he saw one of the youth's Kick Andrew Jones in the head. It was said that the policeman caught the man that he had seen kick Andrew Jones in the head and had taken his name and address but let him go after the youth had said that he was only stepping over him.

Andrew Jones was taken to hospital but never regained consciousness and died the next day.

His friend was said to have been with him at the time but when they had met the youths, he had walked on as Andrew Jones was marched back down the street. The friend said, in court, that he didn't see the actual attack although he had initially said in one of his earlier statements that he had.

The police said that it was said that it was surprising that so many of the people that had been there had been looking away when the punch was thrown. Andrew Jones's friend himself made four contradictory statements before the trial and then at the trial he said that he couldn't remember much and the case, which had already found contradictory evidence, was then thrown out.

The people from Wales that had seen the man punch Andrew Jones said that they turned up to court to give evidence for the prosecution but that the case collapsed before they could be called and that when they saw the accused man walk out of court they said that he was not the person that they had seen hitting Andrew Jones.

The day after Andrew Jones died the police arrested four people and charged one with murder although his charge was reduced to manslaughter at the trial.

The court had also heard that a friend of the man tried had said that the man tried had confessed to him that he had hit Andrew Jones. However, the CCTV evidence showed that the man whose friend had said he had confessed was seen wearing a short-sleeved shirt whilst the prosecution witnesses had said that the man that had thrown the punch had been wearing a long-sleeved shirt. It was said that the discrepancy in the type of shirt worn and other contradictory evidence resulted in the case being thrown out.

The trial lasted four days before the judge abandoned it.

The man tried had denied being involved.