A man accused of delivering a fatal punch on a dancefloor has said he is sorry for his actions.

Billy Allison denied murdering Matthew O’Gara at the Ricco and Loren bar in Lichfield on 24 May but admitted manslaughter.

Stafford Crown Court heard the 36-year-old, of Shirley, delivered a “very, very hard” punch to the 44-year-old pub owner with the “stance and skill of an experienced fighter”.

Giving evidence on Tuesday, Allison said he was “just really sorry for what I did that night and really sorry my actions caused the end of someone’s life”.

Allison, who also admitted grievous bodily harm against O’Gara’s friend, Adam Cooper, denied the attack was carried out with intent.

When asked by his barrister Gurdeep Gracha KC if he had intended to cause really serious injury or death to the victims, he replied: “Definitely not.”

O’Gara was rendered unconscious by the punch, which was to his neck, and he died in hospital two days later, the court heard.

Allison said he was “not really sure” what his intentions were when he hit the victim.

“It’s a bit of a grey area, I’m not really sure why I did it at the time,” he said.

Opening the case last month, prosecution counsel Timothy Hannam KC said it was an “unprovoked and senseless” attack.

O’Gara, who ran a country pub called The Plough on the outskirts of Lichfield, had his back to Allison on the dancefloor, the court heard.

The jury was told he was “completely oblivious” before being punched in the side of the neck.

The force “made a sound loud enough to be heard over the bar’s DJ sound system”, and was hard enough to break several bones and split an artery, Hannam said.

The bleeding caused a haemorrhage at the base of O’Gara’s brain which resulted in a cardiac arrest.

The court heard Allison had been working six or seven days a week as a groundworker at the time of the attack.

It was told he would drink a “couple of times a month” or when Aston Villa, the team he supports, played matches.

Allison said he was usually a “happy drinker” and alcohol would make him “chirpy”.

He also said he took cocaine perhaps once a month, when socialising, to “fit in”.

The court heard details of previous offences, which included a caution in 2007 for criminal damage after breaking into the scorer’s hut at a cricket club and an offence of occasioning actual bodily harm following a fight when he was 18.

In 2009, Allison caused racially or religiously aggravated alarm or distress which arose during an arrest for being drunk and disorderly.

He said he had had a “silly argument” and could not remember exactly what he said to police but thought it was “something racial”.

Allison also failed to disperse when directed to do so at an Aston Villa match in Wolverhampton in 2017.

He said he pleaded guilty on each occasion because it was the “right thing to do”.

Allison is expected to continue his evidence on Wednesday morning.

The trial continues.
BBC News