Murdered man stabbed ‘from side to side’ with 23-inch sword
The 23 inch sword was thrust through Michael Bailey’s body from side to side during the incident in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, in June 2003.
The blade penetrated between his ribs and through his chest muscles to within half a centimetre of the skin of the other side of his body, Norwich Crown Court was told.
Mr Bailey, a talented stock car racer, died almost immediately after the sword “wreaked terrible damage” on his lungs and heart.
His former next door neighbour, unemployed Melvin Sullivan, aged 45, denies murder.
Rex Tedd, prosecuting, said that Mr Bailey was with his girlfriend, Amy Cottrill, outside their home in Waterlees Road, Wisbech, when he was killed.
He said the couple had been out drinking with friends before returning in a taxi at around 2am.
Shortly after they got home they heard a loud banging from the next-door house where Sullivan and his wife, Susan Rolfe, lived.
Mr Tedd said it was possible Sullivan and his wife had been irritated by the noise of the door closing when Mr Bailey and Ms Cottrill returned home.
“Within a very short while those in 77 [Sullivan and his wife] began a heavy, loud, repetitive banging on the party wall between the two houses,” said Mr Tedd.
Mr Tedd said this reaction was disproportionate to any accidental offence caused by the closing of the front door at Mr Bailey’s house.
“The upshot was that Michael Bailey went out of Number 75 and began to respond to the shouting coming from Number 77.”
Mr Tedd said Ms Cottrill left the house and stood next to Mr Bailey. He said Mr Bailey had earlier taken off his shirt and was naked from the waist up. Both were unarmed.
Sullivan came out of his house and approached Mr Bailey with a long shiny object in his right hand which he was holding by his side. Ms Cottrill thought it was a metal bar.
“After the briefest of conversations, face to face, during which the couple told the defendant to go back into his home, the defendant struck the single blow that both began and ended the violence.
“Such a terrible wound was inevitably fatal. Michael Bailey never spoke again. He collapsed and, despite the efforts of those at the scene to help him, he died almost immediately.”
Mr Tedd said the prosecution would argue that the blow was deliberate and the sword aimed at a vulnerable part of the body.
“The defendant went back towards and eventually into his own house at Number 77.
“The defendant himself, not withstanding, we say, that he must have appreciated instantly just how seriously he had injured Michael Bailey, did nothing to attempt to revive him.”
Mr Tedd said that when police searched Sullivan’s house they found a number of other weapons, including a cavalry sword, a Samurai sword, bayonets and large knives. Under the settee in the lounge officers also found a machete and two wooden coshes.
Mr Tedd said that, when questioned by police, Sullivan had said Mr Bailey was aggressive and Ms Cottrill was armed with a kitchen knife.
Sullivan said he had thrust the sword after Mr Bailey came towards him.
He said he realised he had “caught” Mr Bailey with the sword and shouted for someone to call the police and an ambulance.
The trial continues.
