Overview
- Police found 37-year-old Graham Cox dead at Ashley Crowder’s flat on March 5, 2024, and Crowder is charged with murder with an alternative count of manslaughter plus assault and four theft counts.
- Crowder, 36, has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denies taking money from Cox while he stayed at the Barton Walk flat.
- The Crown played a police video of witness John Mahon who said Cox was ‘petrified’, was belittled and was physically attacked, and that Crowder coerced him to stay and took his benefits.
- A recorded police interview read at court gave Crowder’s version that he put Cox ‘on the coach’, later checked on him and thought he was dead, and that payments to Crowder’s mother were repayments rather than thefts.
- The trial at Bolton Crown Court before Judge Nicholas Clarke KC is ongoing and will turn on witness credibility, the defendant’s interview and forensic evidence, with jurors set to hear more testimony and submissions.