Man accused of killing a grandfather with one punch tells court docket he knew he had completed sufferer critical hurt when he heard his head hit floor

A pub goer accused of killing a grandfather with a single punch said he knew he had caused him serious harm when he heard his head hit the ground. 

Nathan Gothard, 37, said he did not intend to kill David Darke, 66, but knew he was badly injured by the sound his head made. 

Mr Darke suffered a fractured skull and bleed on the brain in the attack outside The Crown Inn in Appleby Magna, Leicestershire just before Christmas. He died in hospital on December 27. 

Giving evidence at Leicester Crown Court on Thursday, Gothard said he ‘lashed out’ at Mr Darke with a ‘preemtive stike’ as he feared he was going to be attacked. 

Jurors have been told Gothard, who lives yards from the pub, hit Mr Darke ‘so hard that he killed him’ to ‘save his own face’ after losing a fight outside a village pub.

Prosecutors say Gothard wanted ‘revenge’ after he was earlier knocked to the ground by another man. 

Gothard, who denies murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter, had been in the pub since 4pm that day, the court has been told. 

Mr Darke arrived later with a group of colleagues from a nearby Best Western hotel.

Jurors have been told that Gothard started behaving inappropriately, making unwelcome advances and remarks to women in the Best Western group, and made it clear to them ‘it was his terrain – they were in his pub’.

The court heard the atmosphere was ‘menacing, threatening, argumentative and disputing’ because of Gothard’s behaviour.

But Gothard claims he was being goaded by the group from Best Western after he offered to buy them all a drink. 

Gothard in a black jumper, white shirt and black tie, said he had drunk several pints of San Miguel and was ‘merry, in a good mood’. 

He said the hotel group were ‘pointing and looking and laughing’ at him. 

‘I had my back to them and it felt like I was being ridiculed, it didn’t feel right,’ he said. 

He denied making one of the women in the group feel uncomfortable and claimed Mr Darke later threatened to ‘bury me and put me in the ground’. 

He said Mr Darke took offence when he told him he was older than his father. 

‘I said ‘I don’t want any trouble and that he was older than my father’ which he didn’t like,’ Gothard told the court. 

Asked if he was the cause of the ‘shift in atmosphere’ inside the pub he replied: ‘I refute that completely.’

He said he was ‘confused’ at being asked to leave by the landlady but denied being angry. 

‘I felt confused, the fact that I hadn’t swore at anyone, I was a regular. Why should I have to leave the pub if I haven’t done anything wrong? It felt unfair.

‘I was confused but I would not say frustrated and angry, no.’ 

After being asked to leave Gothard remained outside the pub until the Best Western group left. He was then punched to the ground and kicked by Ty Fern. 

Prosecutors said Mr Darke then tried to help him up before Gothard punched him. 

But Gothard said Mr Darke ‘violently’ grabbed him and threatened to kill him.

‘I’ve lashed out and hit him as I thought I was going to get attacked again,’ he said. 

‘I could hear he quickend his pace up and I turned around and saw him coming towards me to … to assault me. He was following me.

‘He was coming towards me I don’t know how to say it any more clear than that.’

‘I threw a single punch. A preemptive strike to stop being assaulted again.’

He said he did not see what happened next. ‘I knew he fell but then I was sort of pushed into the car park, he said. 

Asked if he thought he had hurt Mr Darke seriously he replied: ‘How he fell yes, the sound yes.’

He denied intending to kill him or cause serious injury adding: ‘I just wanted the threat to stop I didn’t want to be attacked again.’

Gothard denied ‘bouncing about’ afterwards and said he did not call for help as it  ‘all happened so fast’.   

In cross-examination, prosecutor Peter Joyce KC, asked: ‘Were you celebrating what you had just done to Mr Darke?’

Gothard said: ‘No sir, I was concerned about Mr Darke.’

Mr Joyce said Gothard made a woman inside the pub ‘very, very uncomfortable’ by staring at her, which the defendant denied.

The barrister asked: ‘It was obvious to everyone there that you were making the whole group cross, wasn’t it?’, to which Gothard replied: ‘Not that I recall sir, no.’

The trial continues.