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Kian Bateman denies murdering Shelley Davies outside a Cardiff social club
A jury trying a driver for allegedly running over and killing a woman outside a social club has watched “distressing” footage of the late-night collision.
Kian Bateman is alleged to have deliberately driven oven Shelley Davies as she lay on the road after she had became involved in a physical fight with the defendant’s brother Kai.
Miss Davies suffered multiple injuries in the incident including fractures to her vertebrae, ribs, arm and pelvis, along with internal injuries.
While in hospital the 38-year-old suffered complications, contracted multiple infections, went into septic shock, and suffered irreversible and fatal organ failure. David Bratcher, 40, who was Ms Davies’ partner, was also seriously injured in the incident but survived.
Bateman, 19, of Heol Muston, Ely, Cardiff, denies murder and is on trial at Cardiff Crown Court. For the latest court stories sign up to our crime newsletter
It is the prosecution case that at just after midnight on Saturday, September 27 last year Bateman deliberately drove his mother’s Seat Ibiza car into Ms Davies and Mr Bratcher outside the Home Guard club in the Ely area of Cardiff “intending in this moment to either kill them or at least cause them really serious harm”.
It is alleged Bateman’s motivation for driving into the couple was that moments earlier they had been involved in a physical altercation with his brother Kai in the street. The defendant is then said to have driven off from the scene before abandoning the car and going back to the home he shared with his sibling.
The jury has been shown a compilation of CCTV clips from cameras outside the Home Guard and from a newsagency on the opposite side of Heol Trelai from the club which showed the incident. The judge, Mrs Justice Tracey, warned the jury about the “distressing” nature of the footage.
The jury was also shown CCTV footage from around the club which prosecution barrister Michael Jones KC said showed the defendant inhaling nitrous oxide gas – better known as laughing gas – from a balloon on the evening of the incident.
The jury was also shown pictures of Bateman’s car after it was recovered by police which showed a golden-coloured cannister of nitrous oxide gas on the seat.
Mr Jones has previously told the jury: “The only people directly in front of his car were those he hit, the two who suffered really serious injuries and the one who later died, who were seconds earlier involved in an altercation with his brother right in front of his car.
“Immediately prior to doing that the defendant had been inhaling nitrous oxide gas, a class C drug which would have impaired his ability to drive and made him act more aggressively.
“The prosecution say it’s no coincidence that moments before the defendant drove at Shelley Davies and David Bratcher, they had been involved in a physical altercation with his own brother Kai. The prosecution say this is why he accelerated and deliberately drove his vehicle at them.”
On Monday the jury also heard details of prepared statements the defendant gave to police in interview following his arrest. In them Bateman, who was 18 at the time, denied he had been drinking or taking drugs on the night in question and said as he approached the Home Guard club he saw a large group of people in the road.
The defendant said he slowed down and stopped as people began surrounding the car. He said people were shouting and banging on the car which left him feeling frightened that he would be “beaten up” and that the car would be damaged.
He said he felt “trapped” drove off in a panic and said he did not see anyone in the road and did not intentionally hit anyone or drive over anyone.
Bateman denies murder and the trial, which is expected to last two-to-three weeks, continues.
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