Off-Topic: Brian Farmer Murder Trial, Day 3

Day 3 -- November 15, 2013

First I have to apologise to my readers for leaving today's trial update so late. Starting at lunchtime I had terrible indigestion, which got progressively worse during the day. When I got home I was feeling so sick that I had to go to bed for five hours. I blame the food in the court's restaurant. Today fish and chips was served, which is an easy enough dish to make, but the chips were hard, the peas were hard and the fish was rubbery. Despite the convenience of being able to stay in the building to eat, I shan't do it again. There are better and cheaper restaurants throughout the city centre.

Now to the trial itself. A forensic expert described the blood that she found in Brian's flat, and what she thinks it meant. Blood was found on the walls and the floor in the living room, hallway, kitchen and bathroom. Apart from a small amount of blood on the door there was no blood in the bedroom. He was found dead without shoes, wearing only a green jumper and boxer shorts, but there was a pair of trainers soaked with blood, suggesting that the blood trickled down his legs into the shoes for a long time before they were removed.

Apart from the blood, the walls were covered with stains from many other items, especially in the living room. These included eggs, tomato ketchup and brown sauce.

Clumps of hair were found in a black bin bag in the bathroom. More hair was found underneath his chair, which had been turned to face the wall.

All the text messages sent from Jason Andrews and Lisa Clarke between May 9th and May 16th were read to the court. Most of the messages were irrelevant, but a pattern did emerge. From May 9th to May 13th Jason was sending texts and receiving no answers, making him believe his relationship with Lisa was over. After that there were frequent replies. The most significant messages were a text from Lisa in which she said, "Martin isn't happy that you killed an old man", and two almost identical texts from Jason in which he said that he needed Lisa's help because he was "looking at life".

After this the police statements of Jason Andrews, Lisa Clarke and Vaughan Davies were read. Jason exercised his right to remain silent. He replied "no comment" to all questions asked by the police. The questions were read to us, including questions such as "Do you know Brian Farmer?" and "Did you kill Brian Farmer?"

Lisa Clarke was more talkative during her interviews. She replied to most of the questions. She claimed that there was only a minor argument in Brian's flat. She says that Brian had already been attacked by two men called Dino and Dizzy before she arrived. While she was there she didn't attack Brian, and she says that if Jason had attacked him she would have told him to stop.

Vaughan Davies gave a very detailed portrayal of the events. It seems that there were some slight differences in dates and times from what he had told his social worker, but this may be due to the social worker not making notes until after the meeting and making mistakes in small details. Vaughan Davies said that he travelled to Birmingham from Leicester on May 6th 2012. He met Lisa Clarke and John Campion at the train station, and together they took a taxi to Bateman House, Yardley, where Brian lived. In his police interview he claimed that Brian was alone at home when they arrived at about 6pm. The first thing that happened when he arrived was that he smoked a spliff. After about 20 minutes Lisa began to hit Brian because he had been "sniffing her knickers". She hit him over the head with a stereo loudspeaker, which shattered on his head, she punched him repeatedly, and she poured boiling water over him. At first Vaughan tried to persuade Lisa to stop, but then Brian told Vaughan, "I helped you piss when you were two years old". Vaughan had never met Brian before, but he interpreted this as a confession of sexual abuse, so he punched Brian three times.

Jason Andrews arrived at about 7pm. Lisa encouraged him to attack Brian. Jason repeatedly wanted to stop, but Lisa insisted that he should continue because Brian had been sniffing her knickers. John Campion took no part in the attack, and he left at 8pm. Vaughan wanted to leave as well, but Lisa threatened to hurt him if he left. The attacks on Brian lasted five hours, until 11pm. During this time Vaughan said that they were bouncing everything off his head; they smashed picture frames on his head, they threw eggs at him, they hit him over the head with bottles of tomato ketchup and brown sauce. Jason cut off Brian's beard with a bread knife, but he denied that Brian was stabbed while he was there. Vaughan let Lisa and Jason continue with the attack while he went into the kitchen to cook some food. Lisa took the chicken that he was cooking and used it to hit Brian on the head.

At 11pm Vaughan fell asleep on the sofa. Brian fell asleep on the armchair. Lisa and Jason slept in the bedroom. In the morning Vaughan woke up first. Brian said he was feeling okay. Vaughan cooked breakfast for Brian and himself, then left. Vaughan claimed that this was the first and only time that he ever visited Brian. When he left he was stopped by two big black men who were carrying a gun. They asked where Brian lived, and he gave them directions.

After the trial I spoke to one of Brian's sisters. She said that she interprets the comment about Brian helping Vaughan piss differently. Brian suffered from dementia, and he often didn't recognise people. Vaughan had blond hair, so it's her opinion that Brian thought Vaughan was his son.