Parents “knew Morgan was in the house” and Dad may have joked about him being dead

Monday 21 March 2016

One of the boys on trial for perverting the course of justice over their actions around the death of 16-year-old Morgan Huelin has told the court that his parents already knew that Morgan was in the garage – and that his father “may have” made a joke about him being dead.

The evidence was heard during cross-examination on Friday afternoon. The defence of the five teens who all deny perverting the course of justice is that they moved Morgan not to deceive the police, but to make sure that they didn’t get into trouble with their parents.

The boy was being cross-examined by prosecutor Howard Sharp QC on Friday afternoon – the prosecution and defence have now closed their cases and are due to sum up before the Youth Panel today, with a verdict expected at some point tomorrow.

In one exchange, below, the boy said that his father “may have” joked about Morgan being dead.

Sharp: “Did your mum make the comment about Morgan in the garage?”

Defendant: “I believe it was my Dad.”                          

Sharp: “Was there some sort of joke about him being dead, do you recall?”

Defendant: “There might have been.”

Sharp: “When you had the conversation with your Dad, did he also tell you that they were all going out for breakfast that morning?”

Defendant: “I believe he did.”

Sharp: “Given you knew that they would be very shortly leaving the house, why did you need to move Morgan for their sake?”

Defendant: “They didn’t leave the house until after we had moved Morgan.”

Sharp: “If the object here was to hide Morgan from your parents do you agree it was a very risky move to move him while your parents were still in, because there is a good chance you would have been spotted?”

Defendant: “As far as I could tell they were upstairs.”

The defendant was then read a transcript of what he had said to the first police officer on the scene – his words were recorded on a body-worn camera, and he told the officer that he had found Morgan outside of the garage, and on the road.

He said: “I woke up when i decided to take the bins out. I saw him in the road or right around the corner. And I went to check for a pulse and stuff and he was like out of it, I couldn’t find a pulse.”

There was also a dispute over whether foam had been coming out of Morgan’s nose and mouth when he was first found at around 9.15 am in the garage. The witness statement from the only one of the five defendants to give a statement to police said that foam had been coming out of his nose and mouth, but on the stand, the defendant denied that.

Sharp: “In fact you couldn’t find a pulse when you first saw him.”

Defendant: “No, I thought he had a weak pulse.”

Sharp: “Are you really quite sure that there was not foam coming out of his mouth?”

Defendant: “There was not when I first saw him.”

Sharp: “You didn’t think the situation was critical?”

Defendant: “I thought it was serious, definitely, but not critical.”

Sharp: “Did you think he needed an ambulance?”

Defendant: “I thought he needed an ambulance. I thought that was the safest option to make sure he was OK, because he seemed not to be waking up.”