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Search for'Victim was cold when I found him' — witness
Friday, November 21, 2008, 17:42
Colin Newall said he saw the deceased on his living room floor at Ystwyth Place, Clase. There was no pulse or heartbeat and his skin was stone cold.
Mr Newall was called as a witness on day five of the Swansea Crown Court trial of 22-year-old Darren Cullen.
Cullen, of Elan Avenue, Clase, denies murdering 53-year-old Mr Mellin between 11pm and midnight on May 24.
Questioned by prosecutor Michael Chambers QC, Mr Newall said that on the weekend in question, he was living at a flat in Elan Avenue.
He spent May 25 there, watching the Grand Prix and drinking cider. Someone who called to see him a number of times that day was a friend of his called Anthony De Vlugt.
Mr Newall told the court that, late that evening, Mr De Vlugt arrived at his home and told him he had just come from John Mellin's.
"Anthony was puffing and panting as if he had been running," said Mr Newall.
"He looked as if he had been crying."
Mr De Vlugt was saying repeatedly that Mr Mellin was dead. Mr Newall said he decided to go to Ystwyth Place to find out what had happened.
He found Mr Mellin lying dead on his living-room floor. Mr Newall then left the flat and raised the alarm by asking a number of local people to ring 999.
Mr Newall agreed that, in a conversation with Mr De Vlugt earlier that day, the latter had spoken of "wanting to go to prison for violence".
Mr De Vlugt said staff at a supermarket in Clase had accused him of shoplifting and banned him from the store — and he wanted to "go up there and give them a hiding".
"I told him he ought to sign himself into Cefn Coed Hospital," said Mr Newall.
The first police officer at the scene was Sergeant Rhian Lloyd, the court heard.
Sergeant Lloyd said that when she arrived at Ystwyth Place, at 11.50pm on May 25, she found Mr Newall waving his arms in the cul-de-sac to direct them to Mr Mellin's home.
She found Mr Mellin lying dead on a rug with his feet under a coffee table. The TV was on, she said, and this was the only source of light in the room.
When the trial resumes on Monday, the jury will hear evidence from a pathologist and forensic scientists.
The prosecution case is that Cullen fatally injured Mr Mellin by repeatedly punching and kicking his head and body, after the deceased had been ordered to leave a drinking session at the home of the defendant's father.
The defence case, however, is that someone else was the murderer.
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