A man who punched an Iraq War veteran three times in a street attack which led to his death 10 months later, has been found guilty of his murder.
Gregory Twigg, 32, landed three “powerful and cowardly” punches on medically-retired British Army veteran Lee Woodward, in an attack in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on the night of June 24 2022, leaving him severely brain damaged, until he died on April 26 2023.
Twigg, who is already serving an eight-year and three-month prison sentence, after pleading guilty in September 2022 to grievous bodily harm with intent for the attack on Mr Woodward, has now been found guilty of his murder.
Mr Woodward’s family cried and whispered “yes” as a jury of seven women and five men returned their verdict on Thursday, after two hours and 57 minutes of deliberations, at the end of a trial at Stafford Crown Court.
The trial was told Mr Woodward had been on a night out with his fiancee Kate Griffin, and had left The Liquor Vaults pub in Trade Street minutes before her, when he became involved in a confrontation with the occupants of a Vauxhall Astra that had been driving past him.
Twigg, who admitted he had taken cocaine and had drunk vodka and sambuca, told the trial he had become angry after Mr Woodward had allegedly sworn at and threatened him and his friends as they were driving past him on their way to a night out.
The driver, Nathan Lockley, pulled the car over and a confrontation ensued, with Twigg getting out of the back seat of the vehicle and attacking Mr Woodward three times.
Prosecution counsel David Mason KC said Twigg was “fired up on drink and coke and raging” when he attacked Mr Woodward, who he said posed no threat to the defendant, after the first punch left him looking “like a highly dazed boxer”.
CCTV from a nearby pub showed Twigg knocking Mr Woodward, who was over six feet tall, to the ground, before a second punch knocked him into a parked car.
The third punch left him unconscious in the road and Twigg fled the scene with his friends. He was arrested less than an hour later in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
The trial was told Mr Woodward suffered a severe brain injury and would have required full-time care in a nursing home for the rest of his life, but he died after contracting peritonitis and pneumonia in hospital.
Twigg had told the jury he never intended to cause Mr Woodward serious harm and had only wanted to give him a black eye so that he would leave him and his friends alone.
He said he punched him twice more because he feared Mr Woodward was going to hit him back, and he was “devastated” that his actions had resulted in his death.
In a statement, Ms Griffin had said her partner of 10 years, who had been medically retired from the British Army after suffering a back injury while on a tour of Iraq, relied on strong medication and would never have started a fight because of his back pain.
Mr Mason told the court Twigg’s punches were “powerful and cowardly” and that he had intended to “flatten Lee so he would never get up”.
He said Twigg was trying to “wriggle out” of a murder conviction by attempting to convince the jury he only wanted to give him a black eye, because he knew that by pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent in 2022, that it made him guilty of murder.
Judge Roger Thomas KC thanked the jury for their hard work and told Twigg, who appeared to show no emotion in the dock, that he would be facing life imprisonment, but the minimum term would be decided when he is sentenced on September 19.
