Two men posed with knives and other weapons before murdering a man and seriously injuring three others in a motiveless attack outside a Devon pub in the early hours of New Year’s Day, a jury has heard.
Donald Pemberton, 21, and Ryan Williams, 22, were armed with an axe and at least one knife when they attacked builder Tanis Bhandari, 27, and his friends outside the King’s Arms pub in the village of Tamerton Foliot near Plymouth, the court was told.
Bhandari died as he tried to protect his friends while Pemberton and Williams left behind a “scene of carnage”, the prosecution said. Images of the pair posing with weapons that night were posted on Pemberton’s Facebook page.
Simon Laws QC, prosecuting, said there was no reason for the attack, describing it as “violence for the sake of violence”. The victims were not known to the killers and were “completely unprepared for what was to come”.
Laws said the defendants, who are from Plymouth, had been at a party thrown by Pemberton’s older brother Damien. They were “tipsy and high spirited” and asked to see the host’s collection of knives, it was claimed.
They went upstairs and pounded a punchbag before sifting through the knives and posing with them and other weapons. Laws said the images could be interpreted as “two young men trying to display themselves as powerful and aggressive”.
Laws said the pair armed themselves with an axe and at least one knife – not the weapons they posed with – before leaving the party at 1.15am. The prosecutor said the men were “simply looking for trouble” and it was “pure bad luck” for Bhandari and his friends that their paths crossed.
One of the defendants approached a man called William Hickey, who was close to the village green in Tamerton Foliot, and pulled out a kitchen or fishing knife with a 15cm (6ins) blade, which was allegedly held to his face for 10-20 seconds.
Hickey and his group moved away and called the police but heard screams coming from the direction of the King’s Arms, the jury was told.
Bhandari suffered a fatal wound to his back and died trying to protect members of his group, Laws said. His friend Jamie Healy sustained serious abdominal injuries and was “lucky to survive”.
Another friend, Sean Cordon, was stabbed in the back and fortunate not to have been more badly hurt, while George Walker suffered a stab wound to his arm as he raised it to protect himself as well as wounds to his neck, the court heard.
Pemberton and Williams deny murdering Bhandari. They also plead not guilty to three counts of causing grievous bodily harm to Healy, Cordon and Walker.
The trial continues.
