‘Operation Thistle’ concerned a police investigation into the death of Rhys Howell in a bed-sit in Skegness on 19th August last year. Police were called to the premises at shortly after 7pm and found Mr Howell slumped against a low wall immediately outside the property. He had several blunt and sharp force injuries to his face and a fatal injury to his chest, which nearly penetrated his heart. A further injury was found to the back of his head, together with a cut to the upper back of his clothing, which the prosecution claimed were inflicted after the fatal blow.
Phil Bradley KC (leading Anna Soubry of KCH Garden Square Chambers and instructed by Sophie Kitching, McNeil & Co Solicitors, Lincoln) represented the defendant, 60-year-old David Lupton in the trial at Lincoln Crown Court, which lasted two weeks. Mr Lupton’s case was that he acted in self-defence. After a minor altercation over a missing key, Mr Howell took umbrage and returned to Mr Lupton’s room with a machete. Mr Lupton grabbed a diver’s knife to protect himself and to fend off Mr Howell’s attack.
Addressing the jury in his closing speech, Phil Bradley KC held the machete aloft and said, “However one describes the first incident (and I shall come to the detail of that), it provoked a reaction that nobody would or could have expected. That reaction involved Rhys going downstairs and arming himself with this! Just imagine for a moment being in your own home one minute and the next being confronted with that!”
On 11th March, after deliberating for 90 minutes, the jury unanimously acquitted Mr Lupton of murder and of the alternative charge of manslaughter.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjd3rz7kr87o
https://www.lincolnshireworld.com/news/crime/skegness-man-cleared-of-murdering-flatmate-5028047
