LITTLE HARROWDEN MURDER: ‘I swear I only punched the guy but he’s been stabbed as well’

A drugs user from Wellingborough told Northampton Crown Court yesterday (Monday) that his dealer told him he had punched a man who had also been stabbed shortly after the incident in Little Harrowden that killed Stevie Pentelow.

Lee Parry, who was living in Havelock Street, Wellingborough, at the time, told the court his dealer, Tristan Patel, who was with a 16-year-old boy, had been at his address before and after the incident on June 21, 2019 to sell him some crack cocaine.

When they came back later, Mr Parry said: "As soon as they came in the front living room door, (Tristan's) first words was, 'Parry, I've done something really dumb'.

"I asked him what do you mean you've done something dumb.

"He had his hands up and said, 'I swear I only punched the guy but he's been stabbed as well'."

Mr Parry said Tristan Patel, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to rob Mr Pentelow and murder along with three other co-defendants, and to supplying Class A drugs, looked as "white as a ghost" and seemed "very nervous".

The drug user also told the court: "I asked him how bad was the incident and the other guy said, 'you do realise the knife went right in?', but there was no comment back from Tristan."

The younger man is a 16-year-old co-defendant who Mr Parry identified later in an identification line up. He cannot be named for legal reasons.

Tristan Patel and the 16-year-old boy had arrived at Mr Parry's address earlier that afternoon to supply him with £10 worth of crack cocaine, which Mr Parry said amounted to one rock of the drug.

Mr Parry said Patel also brought weed which he rolled into a spliff and shared among all three of them, and they also drunk some brandy.

Mr Parry said: "They stayed probably an hour."

The two men left Mr Parry's address after Patel had a phone call, which Mr Parry said he paid "no attention" to, and Patel said they would be back in about an hour.

The two men did return and Mr Parry says this is when Patel and the 16-year-old boy spoke about the incident.

Mr Parry reported this to police on July 17.

Asked by the prosecution, Mr David Herbert QC, why he had taken so long to speak to the police, Mr Parry said: "I don't know".

Mr Parry said he decided to contact police after reading in a newspaper that anyone with information should call 101.

Mr Jonathan Rees QC, representing the 16-year-old boy, asked Mr Parry if he had made any notes after the evening in question, to which the witness said: "no."

Mr Rees also asked the witness if his memory ever fails him and Mr Parry replied: "To be honest, yes."

The barrister then put to Mr Parry that: "In respect of what you said the younger man said, 'You do realise the knife went right in?', you haven't got that exactly right.

"He said something about the stabbing but didn't use those exact words."

But Mr Parry said: "Those words have stuck in my head."

Mr John Cammegh QC, representing Tristan Patel, referred to what Mr Parry described his client as saying about the incident and said: "I accept (Patel) said those words or to that effect."

Mr Cammegh later asked: "Mr Patel made it quite clear he punched and nothing more?" Which Mr Parry said was "correct."

However, he questioned if Patel, who has pleaded not guilty to supplying Class A drugs, had sold crack cocaine to Mr Parry, who maintained that Patel had supplied him with drugs for around four months.

The trial continues.