I never intended to kill Lee Butler, Barton murder accused tells jury

Brown, 20, told jurors at Oxford Crown Court this afternoon that he’d pushed 39-year-old Lee Butler away with his own knife.

He knew at the time that he had stabbed the older man, after seeing blood on his knife.

But he denied intending to kill Mr Butler or cause him serious harm.

Previously, jurors have heard prosecutors claim that Brown was one of two men running the ‘Bob’ drugs line from which Mr Butler and friend Donna Osbourne planned to buy drugs. Prosecutors claim Mr Butler was stabbed after Brown accused the older man of ‘chatting s***’ about his product.

READ MORE: What the prosecution say happened in Barton 'murder' trial

However, on Tuesday afternoon Brown told the jury that his work for the Bob drugs line was ‘controlled’ by a man named in court only as ‘Jake’. There was said to be a connection between the line and the capital, with Brown telling jurors: “I know it used to go up to London.”

In respect of the ‘Bob’ line, were you running the line, controlling that line? Ms Hussain asked.

“No,” Brown replied.

Ms Hussain later asked the defendant: “Who was it who told you to go out and sell the drugs?”

He said: “Jake.”

“Is he the one you got your instructions from,” she added.

“Yes,” he replied.

Lewis Brown being arrested by the police Picture: TVP

October 8 – the day of the ‘murder’

“Earlier that day one user, I’m not sure who, they called the Bob phone and they told Jake someone was coming to rob me,” Brown said.

“He said to Jake there was threats made by Butler to rob me on that day.”

Ms Hussain asked her client how he knew what was said. “Jake told me,” he replied.

Jake was said to have handed Brown a knife. “When did he want you to carry it,” Brown’s barrister asked. “At all times during the day when I was outside the house.” He had not seen the knife before.

What was the purpose of you having that knife, Brown was asked. He replied: “For protection or to deter anyone.” The sheathed blade was stored in his waistband.

Asked if he thought he might be attacked, Brown said he thought there was a ‘good chance of it’. He thought he would be at risk of ‘just an average robbery’.

Ms Hussain asked: “Why didn’t you just say no to Jake, that you were not going to carry a knife outside?”

Brown replied: “He’s one of them people you can’t really say no to.”

The QC followed up: “What might happen if you say no to him?”

“I would get beaten up or possibly stabbed myself, something like that,” he said.

“Did you feel like you had a choice,” Ms Hussain asked.

Nah, he said.

Jake was the one who gave him instructions about where to go to meet Donna. He was to take drugs to two places, although he was not aware who he would be meeting.

He got to the ‘bottom field’, the scene of the stabbing, and saw Ms Osbourne and Mr Butler standing together.

Ms Hussain asked how Brown felt when he saw Mr Butler, the man who was allegedly planning to rob him. “I felt pretty anxious,” he said.

The defendant said there was nothing said by Ms Osbourne, Mr Butler or him about the quality of the drugs being sold. He denied saying anything to Mr Butler about the older man ‘boying him off’, as alleged by Ms Osbourne. He also denied that she’d had to stop him from grabbing at his knife.

• Day 1: Jury sworn in
• Day 2: Prosecution opens its case
• Day 3: Addicts on 'Bob' line
• Day 4: Eyewitness gives evidence
• Day 5: Pathologist in the stand
• Day 6: What happened after stabbing?
• Day 7: Drugs expert
• Day 8: Prosecution closes its case with agreed facts

Ms Osbourne paid for the drugs – ‘three white’, or three wraps of crack cocaine – which Brown took from his mouth and handed over. He put the cash she’d given him into the pocket of his tracksuit trousers, one of two pairs he was wearing – one on top of the other.

After the handover, Mr Butler was said to have switched places with Ms Osbourne and walked towards Brown.

“He asked me something along the lines of ‘where are the rest of the bits [drugs]?’” Brown said. Mr Butler was facing him and stood six or seven feet away.

“I took a couple of steps back and I was like ‘what do you mean?’ Then he says something along the lines of ‘don’t act silly, where are the rest of the bits? Give me the rest of the bits.’”

Mr Butler appeared ‘somewhere between’ angry and desperate, the defendant said.

The older man, who at 6ft was six inches taller than the Bob line runner, was then said to have repeated his demand: “Give me the bits.”

Brown told the jury: “I told him I didn’t have them on me. That’s when he pulled out a knife.”

The blade was said to have come from his pocket. He waved it down at his side, Brown told the jury, and said: “I’ve had enough of this. Give me the bits.” He later repeated: “Give me the bits. I’m not going to tell you again.”

How did that make you feel, Ms Hussain asked.

“Quite scared, quite nervous. Panicked.”

The barrister asked: “What did you think might happen?”

“Probably stab me,” Brown replied.

The younger man was said to have reached for his own knife. Mr Butler ‘pulled his blade up and backwards’ in a jabbing motion, the jury was told.

Brown said he grabbed Mr Butler’s blade. The older man grabbed him by the shoulder, tugging at his clothing.

“I pulled the whole thing [Brown’s knife] out. The knife’s come out, [Butler’s] still shaking. I’ve tried pushing him off me with the knife still in my hand,” the defendant said.

He added that he’d ‘punched out’ with the blade.

“What were you trying to do,” his counsel asked.

“I was trying to get him off me or away from me.”

The site of the alleged murder Picture: ED NIX

Did you have any time to really think about what you were doing, she asked. “No,” the defendant replied.

Did you have any time to think about the consequences or the danger of what you were doing?

“No,” Brown said.

“From the time I grabbed his knife and the time I punched out at him was probably two to three seconds.”

Brown knew that he’d caused an injury, as he saw blood on his knife. He grabbed Mr Butler’s knife and ran from the scene with both blades.

Ms Hussain asked: “Did you have any intention to kill Lee Butler?”

No, her client replied.

“Did you have any intent to cause really serious harm to him?”

“No, none.”

She asked what Jake would have done to him if Mr Butler had successfully robbed him. “He probably would beat me up quite badly.”

Brown said he ran back to Colin Sumner’s flat, where he briefly told Jake that Mr Butler had tried to rob him and he’d stabbed the older man.

Jake was ‘quite annoyed, he was quite angry, frustrated and worried as well’.

The Bob line controller took the two knives off Brown, jurors were told. The defendant confirmed that none of the blades found in Mr Sumner’s house by the police were the ones involved in the stabbing. He said that the drawing supposedly of the murder weapon, done by Ms Osbourne for the police, looked more like the knife Mr Butler was carrying.

Donna Osbourne made this illustration of the 'murder weapon' for police Picture: TVP

He said Donna Osbourne had not done anything to stop Mr Butler during the robbery attempt.

Brown did not make a call from the 2902 number to Ms Osbourne in the wake of the stabbing, he said. Earlier in the trial, jurors heard that Ms Osbourne returned a call to the ‘Bob’ line phone at 6.08pm. “I didn't talk, the person said that wasn't meant to happen and it was nothing to do with me,” she said from the stand.

Ms Hussain asked: “On that day, on October 8, or at any other time before then did you have any conversation with Donna [Osbourne] or Lee [Butler] or anyone else about the quality of the drugs being sold?”

He had not, he said.

Previous cautions

The jury heard Brown had no previous criminal convictions. He had two cautions on his record, one from May 2018 for possession of cannabis and a second dating to January 2020 for threatening and abusive behaviour.

• Lewis Brown, of Barton Village Road, Oxford, denies murder and possession of a bladed article. The trial continues.

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