Jacksdale man denies knowledge of 85-year-old man’s brutal death

Matthew Roe, of Jacksdale, and his brother Luke, aged 34, of Potter Street, Worksop, deny murdering Henry Thwaites, on July 23 last year, and hiding his body under a metal fence by the Welbeck Estate, near Warsop, where he was found the next morning.

It was suggested they “tricked” Mr Thwaites into driving them to a remote location to buy them a Mercedes.

Giving evidence at Nottingham Crown Court, 25-year-old Matthew, of Franklin Road, said he had fallen asleep in the back of Mr Thwaites’s Fiat Punto, after drinking beer and whisky all day.

When the car stopped there was a “bang”, which he “thought was a pheasant”.

He said Luke smashed the passenger window with his elbow as he got out, but he “didn’t think much of it” because, he said: “I was drunk. He was drunk.”

He said it was dark outside and he “heard moaning and two voices arguing”.

Roe said: “The next thing, Luke jumped into the driver’s seat and drove off. I didn’t get out of the vehicle. I didn’t see what was going on.”

“I said we need to go back for him. Luke said, ‘f*** him, let him walk’. I didn’t know what had happened to Henry. I thought it was a bit stupid. I was not there when he was injured.”

Matthew said there was no discussion about what happened as they returned to Worksop and withdrew money from a cash machine using Mr Thwaites’s card.

“I didn’t think anything had happened to him,” he said. He changed his clothes as he thought he might have spilled beer on them, and only learned Henry was injured from a later conversation.

The brothers drove back to Limetree Avenue, Worksop, with their father, Kevin Roe, 60, and 27-year-old Abby Dixon, both of Watson Road, Worksop, who deny assisting an offender.

CCTV recordings of Matthew talking about hitting someone with a gearbox were him talking “complete rubbish”, the court heard.

He denied being an “active participant” and knowing “exactly what happened to Mr Thwaites”.

Judge Nirmal Shant KC recounted his testimony in her summing-up, today, with jurors set to retire to consider their verdict.