Man drove car at crowd, murder trial hears

A man "deliberately" drove a car into a crowd of people after a row outside a bar in Nottinghamshire, a trial has heard.

Tyler Fairman, 26, died on 12 May, three days after he was one of several people hit by a vehicle on Gedling Road in Arnold.

On Tuesday a jury at Nottingham Crown Court was told Duane Anthony, 40 and of Marton Road in Bulwell, Nottingham, denies one count of murder and five counts of attempted murder.

His partner Destiny Carrier, 29, of Lothair Road, Leicester, has also pleaded not guilty to one charge of assisting an offender.

The court heard the defendants and the victims had both been out in different parts of Nottingham on 8 May before they separately made their own ways to a bar in Arnold.

Anthony and Carrier had been in a canalside pub before driving north.

Fairman had been celebrating with fellow members of Woodthorpe Park Rangers Football Club in Mapperley before they moved on to Arnold in the early hours of 9 May.

Gareth Weetman KC, prosecuting, said the two groups could be seen on CCTV footage at about 01:00 BST involved in "some sort of disagreement" outside a bar on Front Street, which then moved on to neighbouring Market Place and Gedling Road.

He told jurors the defendants walked away from the scene to where they parked their car, but minutes later Anthony returned in the vehicle alone and drove at Fairman and his friends in a "cold, calculated and violent" manner.

"These aren't the actions of a driver who has last control," he said while presenting CCTV footage to jurors.

"[He] deliberately drove a car into a group of people, intending to kill them."

Weetman said Fairman was found by paramedics unconscious in the road and bleeding from the nose, and was taken to Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham.

His life support was withdrawn on 12 May.

"The impact [of the crash] caused him severe brain injuries, which ultimately caused his death," the prosecutor said.

Four other people went to hospital with a range of injuries, while Weetman told jurors one man was seen on CCTV "miraculously jumps out of the way at the very last moment".

After the crash, Weetman said Anthony "gets out and runs", showing CCTV footage of a man fleeing the vehicle.

He said Carrier arrived on the scene shortly afterwards and witnessed the wreckage of the car, adding: "There can be no doubt in [her] mind the severity of what happened."

The court heard both defendants separately left the scene before meeting up more than an hour later, and then left the area.

Body-worn footage showed Anthony being arrested at about 17:30 on 9 May at a property in Radcliffe, where Carrier was also present.

Weetman said Anthony refused to comment in police interviews, and said expert analysis of the car found "some minor defects", but determined "none of them would have caused or contributed to this incident".

The trial continues.

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