A MAN jailed for stabbing another man in the head and later charged with his murder a decade later has claimed he is a victim of “mistaken identity”.
Leonard Morrison, 47, had already been convicted of attempted murder after a street brawl outside a house party at Pegasus Road, Blackbird Leys, Oxford.
Samuel Marriott-Gray was left in a vegetative state after the attack on August 19, 2006 and later died of his injuries on October 31 2015.
Morrison now denies one charge of murder.
Speaking from the witness box at his trial at Oxford Crown Court yesterday Morrison, who is originally from Jamaica and moved to Oxford in 2001, told jurors how he had never been in any trouble before.
Speaking with a gravelly Jamaican accent he said that on the night of the attack he had been standing outside with a group of people and that there had been ‘some tension’ between them but that he was not involved.
He said: “I said that I didn’t come here to cause trouble. Then I got up to leave and go to the bus stop and then I was hit.
“I was hit at the back of my head and fell flat on my face. I felt dazed and dizzy.”
He said after being struck with a golf club he then left the scene, oblivious to the stabbing which had left a 18cm hunting knife plunged into Mr Marriot-Gray’s skull, and piercing his brain.
The following day he left Oxford before moving to Manchester before his arrest on August 31 because, he told the court, people were now ‘out to get him’ after the incident and he feared for his safety.
He added that he was a ‘victim of mistaken identity.’
When asked how he felt at being found guilty of attempted murder a decade ago he told jurors: “I felt destroyed.
“Not only because I was convicted of something I didn’t do but I was convicted of something I had never done and I would never do.
“After my conviction I was really destroyed.”
Defending, Peter Wilcock, said that his client had been the victim of a “miscarriage of justice”
He said: “Miscarriages of justice do happen in the courts. The jury system gets it right the vast majority of the time but we all know that mistakes are made.”
Morrison has already served nine years in prison for the original offence and remains subject to a deportation order back to his native Jamaica. He added that he now worked as a prison mentor helping fellow inmates.
The trial continues.
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