Sheffield man accused of murdering neighbour acted in 'self defence' after being punched, jury told

Lee Phillips, aged 45, was found seriously injured outside his home on South Road in the High Green area of Sheffield, just after 1am on Saturday, January 30, 2021. Despite the best efforts of medics he died a short time later.

William Parr, 27, who lived next door to Mr Phillips at the time of his death, is currently on trial at Sheffield Crown Court, accused of his murder, an offence he denies. Parr, of School Road, High Green, has also pleaded not guilty to one count of manslaughter, relating to Mr Phillips’ death.

The jury of seven women and five men have previously heard evidence from consultant neuropathologist, Dr Daniel du Plessis, who carried out an examination of Mr Phillips following his death.

Parr pushed Mr Phillips away after being punched, jury told

Giving evidence via video link, Dr du Plessis said his findings were that Mr Phillips’ most likely cause of death was a ‘severe basal subarachnoid haemorrhage,’ or ‘traumatic’ bleed on the right side of his head.

Dr du Plessis said he believed this was caused by a ‘traumatic’ blow landing on the right side of Mr Phillips’ neck and head, causing a ‘tilting and twisting’ motion that subsequently led to the rupturing of a blood vessel in the brain.

Parr's account of the circumstances surrounding Mr Phillips’ death was that Mr Phillips punched him, and in response, he ‘pushed’ him away, and Mr Phillips subsequently hit his head on a garden wall, the court heard.

The jury have previously been told how in the months leading up to Mr Phillips’ death, he and his partner, Susan Walliss, reported issues they were having with their next door neighbours to Sheffield City Council (SCC), friends and neighbours.

SCC neighbourhood officer, Kendall Butcher, liaised with Ms Walliss over the complaints, and in her evidence to the court, Ms Butcher revealed that in a conversation they had less than 24 hours before Mr Phillips’ death, Ms Walliss said he was ‘ready to blow’ over the stress and anxiety caused by the issues with their neighbours.

Self defence

Delivering his closing speech to the jury, Parr’s barrister, James Hill KC, said Mr Phillips had been ‘ready to blow, ready for a confrontation’ and had ‘tried to punch’ Parr, but Parr was ‘able to defend himself’.

“He [Mr Phillips] was angry, angry enough to go outside without putting his shoes on,” Mr Hill said

Mr Hill said just because Parr had trained as a boxer as a child did not mean he was not allowed to legally defend himself when under attack – or when he perceived there to be a threat of a physical confrontation – providing it was ‘proportionate’.

“If what he [Parr] says is true, that Mr Phillips was swinging for him, then he would have been perfectly entitled to swing his fists...if it’s necessary, if it’s proportionate then you do what you have to in the circumstances,” Mr Hill said.

He added: “He [Mr Phillips] was 6’6, nearly 15 stone, if someone of that size is trying to hit you, then of course you are entitled to do what you need to in order to get them away,” Mr Hill told the jury.

The court has previously been told that the issues raised by Mr Phillips and Ms Walliss concerning their next door neighbour, which included fires being set in the back garden and loud music being played, pre-dated Parr moving into the property in October 2020, with the first complaint to Sheffield City Council made in May 2020.

His partner lived there with other individuals prior to him moving in, and was the only remaining member of the household left.

In a statement read to the court, Ms Walliss’ cousin, Georgina Jones, who also lived nearby, said that despite some of the tenants moving out of the property next door to Ms Walliss and Mr Phillips, the issues around loud music and fires ‘remained the same’.

Mr Hill referred to evidence given by Parr in which he said that his partner would have ‘thrown him out’ if he had asked her to turn down the music.

“She admitted she was the one playing loud music, that she had been setting fires,” Mr Hill said, referring to a conversation Parr’s partner had with council staff following a complaint from Ms Walliss.

‘You can be sure that Mr Phillips did not die after being pushed’

Summarising the prosecution case, Richard Thyne KC, told the jury: “What the prosecution say – even just looking at the medical evidence alone – is you can be sure that Mr Phillips did not die after being pushed, but he died from being struck, hard, to the face and or neck.”

He added that it was the prosecution case that the jury can ‘confidently reject’ the suggestion that Parr was acting in self defence.

“When he [Parr] did what he did, he intended to cause Lee Phillips really serious harm,” Mr Thyne said, adding that if the jury agreed with that assertion, they should convict Parr of Mr Phillips’ murder.

Mr Thyne also asked the jury to consider Parr’s history of ‘unlawful assaults,’ referring to two of Parr’s previous convictions.

One of the convictions related to a 2013 incident in which Parr carried out an ‘unlawful assault’ on a ‘man just doing his job...just trying to stop him from stealing,’ Mr Thyne said, adding that the man Parr assaulted was left with three broken facial bones.

Referring to CCTV capturing the assault which led to the other conviction, which dates back to 2018, Mr Thyne continued: “He approached these two unsuspecting people at the bar and you may think – and it’s for you to decide – there’s a big left handed swing, followed by another left and a right...in Lee Phillips’ case he didn’t need a third or a fourth.”

Use of racist nickname

But Mr Hill said that in the run up to the 2018 assault, the complainants used a racist nickname to refer to Parr’s father and he ‘took exception’ to that .

He also urged the jury not to ‘close their minds to what Mr Parr himself’ had told them.

“Mr Phillips must have come out, full-pelt, no shoes on. That’s an entirely different situation to 2013 or 2018. The prosecution cannot say that Mr Parr started this, or that he was the initial aggressor,” Mr Hill added.

The jury are now expected to be sent out tomorrow morning (Wednesday, February 15).

The trial continues.