Man 'punched victim so hard he killed him' to 'save his own face' at Crown Inn, court hears

A man punched another man "so hard that he killed him" to "save his own face" after losing a fight outside a bar, a murder trial has heard.

Leicester Crown Court heard Nathan Gothard went looking for an altercation before he fatally attacked David Darke near the Crown Inn in Appleby Magna, Leicestershire, days before Christmas last year.

Prosecutors said after losing the fight, Darke helped pull the defendant to his feet, but in his rage, Gothard "attacked Mr Darke to save his own face".

Gothard, who denies murder and an alternative count of manslaughter, was sitting in the dock on Tuesday wearing black glasses, and was shaking his head at times while prosecutor Peter Joyce KC opened the case.

Joyce said the atmosphere in the Crown Inn on the evening of 21 December was "menacing, threatening, argumentative and disputing" because of Gothard's behaviour.

A group of people had come to the pub from their staff Christmas party at the Best Western Hotel on the other side of the village, the court was told.

Joyce said: "The defendant, Nathan Gothard, was already in the pub having arrived just before 4pm.

"During the course of the evening, Gothard began to behave inappropriately, making unwelcome advances and remarks to female members of the group who had come from the staff party and making clear to them it was his terrain - they were in his pub."

The landlady and her partner escorted Gothard - who lived three to four houses from the bar - away to "calm the situation down", jurors heard.

But instead of going home, Gothard got into a fight with a man who he had been "riling and niggling and irritating at" in the bar, the jury was told.

Joyce said Gothard, of Church Street, Appleby Magna, lost the fight and was "knocked down" and kicked, causing an injury to his face.

"David Darke, the man soon to be killed, in fact picked him up and helped pull him to his feet," Joyce added.

"The defendant, in his rage, after losing the fight he had picked, attacked Mr Darke to save his own face.

"He hit him so hard that he killed him. You do that in your rage because of intent to cause someone really serious harm - that's murder.

"David Darke was a man of 66 and he hit his head on the ground, and he was taken to hospital and a few days later he died."

The prosecutor said after the attack, Gothard told police an "elderly male kept saying he was going to kill me and bury me".

"He was looking for a fight. He got a fight. He lost the first one. He lost face and so he attacked the man he described as the 'elderly man'," Joyce said.