By Brian Smith

JURORS AT the High Court in Dunfermline were asked yesterday to accept that two Burntisland men accused of culpable homicide were engaged in a common criminal purpose to seriously injure the man they are alleged to have killed.

Advocate depute Derick Nelson said that in these circumstances each was responsible for the other’s actions and both should be convicted.

Christopher Kitchener (24), of Melville Gardens and Craig Michael Watson (37), of Rossend Terrace, deny that on June 4 last year, at Rossend Terrace, they assaulted Frank John Anthony Morgan, formerly of Ferguson Place, Burntisland.

The charge states they repeatedly struck him on the head and body, repeatedly struck him on the head with a piece of metal, seized and pulled him by the body, seized him by the neck, placed an arm around his neck, pinned him to the ground, bit him, compressed his throat and neck, bound his hands with cable ties, so severely injuring him that he died the following day at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, and that they killed him.

Both men have lodged special defences of self-defence: Kitchener claiming he was being assaulted by Mr Morgan and was acting in defence of his mother Nicola; and Watson claiming he was being assaulted by Mr Morgan and was acting in defence of his co-accused.

Mr Nelson said the crux of the decision jurors had to make was whether the men were acting in self-defence.

He said it may not be assault if a person had to do something to ward off an attacker but the law required a person in that situation to have no reasonable escape route and not to use more than reasonable force.

Referring to the fact that Mr Morgan appeared at the house where Nicola Kitchener and Watson lived to demand money, Mr Nelson continued, “Provocation may be an explanation but it is not a defence.

“In this case I would suggest they overstepped the bounds of self-defence and I ask you to convict them or culpable homicide.”

He asked jurors to accept by piecing together the accounts of the accused and scientific evidence that Mr Morgan lay on his back helpless in a choke hold by Kitchener while at least seven blows were rained down on him by Watson holding a piece of metal fireplace surround.

Kitchener was able to maintain his hold, which pathologists said had starved Mr Morgan’s brain of oxygen and ultimately led to his death, because Mr Morgan’s resistance was reduced, or perhaps eliminated by the blows being struck by Watson.

Equally Watson was able to deliver the blows because Mr Morgan was held by Kitchener.

The advocate depute said that for this reason they both should be found guilty of culpable homicide.

Solicitor-advocate Brian Gilfedder, for Kitchener, said what happened was a “freakish accident,” during a violent struggle, in which his client believed he was fighting for his life.

He placed Mr Morgan in an inefficient “sleeper hold” lasting around 30 seconds but sudden death occurred because pressure was applied to a vital point in the neck, causing the brain to shut down the heart.

As soon as Mr Morgan went limp, he released his hold.

He could not have known what his co-accused would do during the struggle.

Mr Gilfedder asked, “Have the Crown proved he was beyond the scope of self-defence in restraining him for 30 seconds?”

Mr Maurice Smyth, solicitor-advocate for Watson said, “Frank Morgan set in motion a series of violent events, for which he was responsible, which resulted in his death.”

His client was headbutted in the first visit and punched the second time Mr Morgan came to the flat demanding money.

On neither occasion did Watson react violently, rather he sought to appease and calm his much larger attacker, Mr Smyth observed.

Even when his co-accused and Mr Morgan were struggling on the living room floor and Nicola Kitchener was screaming at him to help her son, counsel noted his response was, “What can I do?”

With her pleas continuing, he picked up the first thing that came to hand, a piece of metal from the fire surround, shattered in the fight between the other two.

Mr Smyth said, “This is his position. When Nicola Kitchener begs him, he intervenes for a brief period of time.”

Lord Clarke will give directions in law to jurors today before they retire to consider their verdicts.