The man accused of murdering an Irish man in London told the trial’s jury he “didn’t look back for him to tap dance” when he stole the 87-year-old’s bag in an alleyway in May.
Peering back briefly from the witness box, he said, “I do apologise” to members of John Mackey’s family who were present in the Old Bailey on Wednesday.
London-native Peter Augustine (59) was often irate throughout Wednesday’s proceedings. He swore on his mother’s grave multiple times that he did not murder the Kilkenny man.
While he has pleaded not guilty to murder, he admits he stole Mr Mackey’s bag, containing a one-meal cottage pie and a takeaway sausage and chips. He said he was so hungry on the day of the attack that he had looked in bins for something to eat.
RM Block
Regularly refusing to answer prosecuting barrister Jane Bickerstaff KC’s questions at the final stages of the trial, which began last Monday, he was ultimately excluded from court by Judge Sarah Whitehouse for his behaviour.
Mr Augustine delivered what the judge referred to as “personal speeches” about his previous convictions, which span from 1986 to three days before the alleged attack on Mr Mackey and include robbery, assault and racially aggravated threatening behaviour.
Becoming agitated when the Crown prosecution asked what took place after he stole Mr Mackey’s bag, he banged his fist on the witness box, stood out of his chair and leaned over the railing. “Were you this angry then?” Ms Bickerstaff asked, referring to the day of the alleged attack.
Later, Mr Augustine said he couldn’t recall the moments after he stole the bag, adding that he left quickly but chose not to run as he “didn’t want to bring attention” to himself.
Summarising the prosecution’s case, Ms Bickerstaff told the jury, “the evidence is quite overwhelming” to convict Mr Augustine of both murder and robbery. Manslaughter is also a charge available to the jury to deliver a verdict on, although it is not being argued before the court.
She told the jury that Mr Mackey was attacked while walking home from a supermarket and buying a takeaway dinner near his home in Manor House, by Finsbury Park, north London, on May 6th.
CCTV footage shown to the jury showed the moments before he was attacked in an alleyway. It showed him walking slowly with the aid of a cane and taking caution to cross a busy road.
The alleged attack took place in a CCTV blind spot, Ms Bickerstaff said. However, two witnesses saw a man violently beat Mr Mackey to the floor and continued to do so while he was on the ground, before appearing to rifle through his clothes and belongings. One witness said they heard the attacker call Mr Mackey “a f**king b**tard” while fleeing the scene. Mr Augustine said earlier in the week that was not him.
Mr Mackey suffered severe blunt force trauma to his head and chest and died two days later as a result of his injuries.
A medical expert likened his injuries to a road traffic crash or “falling from a height of over one story”, Ms Bickerstaff said.
Originally from Callan in Kilkenny, he served as a postman in his hometown before moving to London in the mid-1950s to work in a pharmaceutical company. Mr Mackey never married and had no children, but had 22 nieces and nephews.
Mr Augustine told the jury on Monday that after he robbed Mr Mackey’s bag, he cried in Finsbury Park for his actions. In her closing address, Ms Bickerstaff highlighted that Mr Augustine had said, “I remember thinking, ‘you bastard’ to myself, I might have taken this man’s last meal”. She questioned why Mr Augustine would believe this may be Mr Mackey’s last meal, as his defence to the murder charge is that he only stole the bag and ran off.
The defence, led by Jenni Dempster KC, is to deliver its closing remarks to the jury tomorrow morning, before its 12 members retire to the jury room to begin their deliberations.
