Cooksey trial: Jury sent out to deliberate (From Wiltshire Times)

Cooksey trial: Jury sent out to deliberate

5:48pm Thursday 30th August 2012 in Trowbridge By Chris Melvin

The jury in the trial of Melksham man Richard Elmes for the 2009 manslaughter of Trowbridge builder Adrian Cooksey has been sent out to reach a verdict. 

This morning at Bristol Crown Court Recorder of Bristol, Judge Neil Ford QC, summed up the evidence to the jury and sent them out to deliberate at 12.37pm. 

No verdict had been reached by 4.30pm so the court adjourned until Monday morning when the jury will resume deliberations. 

Elmes, 51, of Semington Road, Melksham, denies punching his childhood friend Mr Cooksey in a confrontation over an affair Elmes had with the wife of a mutual friend. 

Mr Cooksey was found unconscious in Spa Road, Melksham, in the early hours of March 8 2009 and died later that day in hospital from head injuries. 

Elmes had been out drinking that night with Mr Cooksey and appeared at the 2009 trial of student Thomas Minshull, who was acquitted, as a witness. 

However secret police recordings of conversations between Elmes and his wife revealed him admitted to telling "porkies" in his evidence, in which he said he had not been in Spa Road with Mr Cooksey or having an argument with him.

In fact he did recall being in Spa Road and the confrontation, which he says he walked away from after Mr Cooksey got "punchy".

Elmes has admitted perjury but denies manslaughter.