THE BROTHER of murder accused Louise Grieve said it was ‘wrong’ her former partner Keith Green was dead.
Prosecutors say 40-year-old Mr Green was stabbed to death by Grieve’s younger boyfriend Mark Meadows, 25, together with his 20-year-old half-brother Travis Gorton on February 13.
Anthony ‘Tony’ Simms, Grieve’s brother, was among those in the house – 42 Howard Road, Banbury – on the night of the alleged murder.
He had left the house with his nephew – and one of the five defendants accused of Mr Green’s murder – Callum Johnson to buy cocaine when the stabbing is said to have happened.
But he told jurors on Monday morning that he returned to find Mr Green dead at the bottom of the garden.
“He was just laid there with blood coming out of him,” Mr Simms told the court.
He was asked by prosecutor Vanessa Marshall KC: “It might sound a silly question, but were you able to speak to him?”
“No, he was dead.”
How did you know he was dead, she asked.
“You can tell if someone’s dead when you look at them.”
Concluding his evidence in ‘chief’ – being taken through his witness evidence by the prosecutor – Mr Simms was asked how he felt about the fact of Mr Green’s death.
“I’m sad he’s dead,” he said.
“His children are not going to see their dad, you know what I mean? And he’s not going to see his children grow up. It’s wrong.”
Earlier, he said Meadows and Grieve had been in a relationship, telling the court he had seen them together ‘around Halloween’ last year. Mr Simms had split up with his own partner at around that time of year and was staying at 42 Howard Road ‘off and on’.
Ms Marshall asked: “Did you think they were good together?”
“Not at all,” he replied. “They’d go off to the pub and stuff.” He felt Grieve should have been at home looking after the children.
After Christmas time, Meadows had shown him a ‘knife’, Mr Simms said. “[I] didn’t really take any notice of it, to be honest.” He added: “He was just showing me his new toy, basically. That’s not what he said but that’s what it came across like.”
On February 13 he rang his sister before driving to the property in his silver Peugeot for dinner. He was ‘pretty sure’ Keith Green was cooking the meal with Louise Grieve when he arrived. “He didn’t eat his dinner. He was down the shed. He’d gone down the shed after dinner.”
After eating supper in the kitchen he ‘went and fell asleep on the sofa’ in the living room, Mr Simms told the jury. Callum Johnson and his friend Kieron White were in the living room. “Callum passed me a couple of cans of beer.”
He confirmed he is a smoker and ‘probably smoked some weed’ on the night of the stabbing. He would have smoked the drug in the garden, standing by the back door.
Shortly before Louise Grieve returned from the pub, Mr Green came out of the shower. “[I] just had a little joke with him” He was ‘distant’.
Mr Simms said: “He’s normally really friendly, always speaks to me. I spoke to him, he ignored me and carried on walking. He said he’d got a lot on his mind. He apologised.”
Grieve came in ‘pretty drunk’ and sat on the floor. Callum was said to have asked his mum for some money. “[I said] if she’s lending him some she might as well lend me some. I’ll pay it back, he won’t.”
He said he was ‘pretty sure’ Grieve sent the money via bank transfer on her phone. There was a discussion about what the money was for, he confirmed in answer to a question from the prosecutor. “Yes, to get some cocaine,” Mr Simms said.
The back gate was opened while he was in the front room, shortly before he left with Johnson to buy cocaine, he said. “I heard the lock because it’s quite a heavy duty lock on it. It’s quite stiff and when it’s pulled back it makes quite a loud bang. Louise was in the front room at the time.”
It was ‘quite hard’ to manoeuvre his silver Peugeot out, as there was a ‘van there and there wasn’t when I parked’. “I thought it might be Mark’s [Meadows’] van,” he said. Mr Simms said he saw no one inside or ‘around’ the van.
They drove to Tesco at the top of the road so Johnson could use the cash point. “Then we drove to KwikFit, met a drug dealer and drove back. It was quite far so I drove. It was raining as well.”
He thought he pulled back onto the drive. Ms Marshall asked: “Was the white van still there?” No, he replied.
Kieron White was stood on the pavement when they got back, Mr Simms told the jury. He was ‘in shock’.
“What did he say?” Ms Marshall asked.
Mr Simms replied: “He said Keith’s dead down shed. I asked him if he’d phoned an ambulance. He said no and ran off. He said Mark and Travis had stabbed him or killed him. He said the names.”
Johnson ‘chased after Kieron’, he added.
“I went down to check what he was saying was true and it was.” He told the jury he walked through the open side gate and saw Keith Green lying in the doorway. His t-shirt had ridden up around his waist. No one else was around.
Ms Marshall asked: “Did you touch anything?” Not at that point, no, he replied.
He went to his car to retrieve his phone then called 999 as he walked back towards Mr Green’s body.
Mr Simms said he went back into the house through the back door and into the kitchen to find out what the address was for the property. “I went to the bottom of the stairs and I think I shouted [for the address],” he said.
Louise Grieve was in the living room. Grieve, Mr Simms and one of her older children went down to the bottom of the garden. Louise was in tears, he said. “It was a bit of a blur, it all happened a bit fast at that point.”
He added: “I was trying not to look, to be honest.”
While he was in the back garden he was ‘pretty sure’ he went into the shed ‘to see if anyone was in there’. There were no people inside, although the ‘pets were in there’.
He waited at the top of the garden and took the paramedics down to Mr Green’s body.
“I couldn’t find my phone. They [the paramedics] couldn’t find it either. They gave me Keith’s phone. I said that’s not my phone and I gave it back. I either gave it them back or put it back next to Keith.”
He said he could remember speaking to one of the police officers in the garden.
Mr Simms told the jury he got in his car then drove ‘to clear my head’. “I’d just seen something most people don’t want to see.” He went to sit by the recycling bins outside a Co-operative store.
He returned to 42 Howard Road. “Because I’d left. They wouldn’t let me back in.” He said he stood by the police forensic tape until they released his sister and his nieces and nephews, then went to the police station before going to a hotel with them. He left them to go and stay with a friend.
Meadows, 25, of Rees Court, Banbury, Gorton, 20, of Well Bank, Hook Norton, Mr Green’s former partner Louise Grieve, 38, her son Callum Johnson, 21, both of Howard Road, Banbury, and a youth who cannot be identified for legal reasons, all deny murder.
Meadows and Gorton have also pleaded not guilty to possession of a bladed article.
The trial continues.
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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.
To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward
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