THE CARLISLE hospital security guard accused or murdering Annan man Paul Taylor has begun giving his evidence at the city’s crown court.

Jack Crawley, 20, who admits manslaughter but denies murder, began by answering four short questions from his defence KC Toby Hedworth KC. His first question was: “Did you ever intend to kill Paul Taylor?”

Crawley replied: “No.”

Mr Hedworth’s second question was: “Did you ever intend to cause him really serious harm?” The defendant said: “No.”

The barrister’s third question was about whether Crawley had intended to kill the man in York whom he is accused of attempting to murder. “No,” was Crawley’s reply. Mr Hedworth’s fourth question was: “We know that you used violence towards [the man in York]; why did you use violence towards him?”

Crawley said: “He attacked me; I was acting in self-defence.”

Over the next hour, Mr Hedworth quizzed Crawley (pictured below) about his background and the circumstances leading up to the day on October 18 last year when Mr Taylor died.

(Image: Web)

The defendant said that when he was in his early teens he had changed schools, moving to one in Wigton, where there were people “involved in taking drugs.” He got in with “bad crowd,” he said.

Crawley went on to tell the jury that Paul Taylor died after he met him at Prior Rigg Lane, just outside Carlisle, and he tried to rob Mr Taylor, stealing his car. During a struggle, he said, he had punched Mr Taylor.

“He fell and tripped over his own feet,” he told the court.

“He fell to the side of the car and then bounced on to the floor.” Mr Hedworth asked Crawley what he meant by “the floor.”

The defendant said: “The concrete.”

He said Mr Taylor began making “snorting” sounds while on the floor. Crawley said he then froze, staring at the sky but then knelt down beside Mr Taylor. There was blood on the ground. “I checked his pulse and he didn’t have one,” he said.

“What did you believe was his condition?” asked Mr Hedworth. Crawley replied: “I think he was dead. He didn’t have a pulse.”

Crawley said he tried to give Mr Taylor CPR but it did not work. In earlier evidence, Crawley said he owed a debt to drugs criminals and he had been instructed to break into a barn conversion where there was a cannabis farm.

He needed a car and that was why he agreed to meet Mr Taylor, so that he would steal his car from him, he said.

Mr Hedworth referred Crawley to comments, which he allegedly made as he was being driven back to Carlisle after crashing Mr Taylor's Vauxhall Corsa, about drug dealers "worse" than the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and a man dying.

This happened on October 19 last year, the day after Mr Taylor died, say the prosecution. Crawley said his actual comment was: "A man has died because of drug dealers as bad as Jeffrey Dahmer.

"It's terrible. 

"It would be good if they were gone; it would be a better world without them. They're a bunch of rats." Crawley added: "Mr Taylor was not a drug dealer; he bought a bit of weed off me sometimes."

"Had Mr Taylor ever done anything to harm you at all?" asked Mr Hedworth. "No," replied Crawley.

Crawley’s co-defendant Marcus Goodfellow, 20, who also worked at The Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle as a security guard, denies assisting an offender, Crawley, by helping to dispose of Mr Taylor’s car while knowing that he had committed an arrestable offence.

Crawley, of Sheehan Crescent, Carlisle, remains remanded in custody while Goodfellow, of Greystone Road, Carlisle, has been given bail during the trial.

A more detailed report of today’s evidence will appear on the News & Star website tomorrow morning. The trial continues.