Baby-faced teen cleared of murder after man died after one punch attack in Yorkshire

4 April 2022, 10:50 | Updated: 4 April 2022, 11:00

A baby-faced teenager who knocked a man unconscious one punch outside a pub in Yorkshire last year has been cleared of his murder.

Kelsea O'Hara, 19, attacked Andrew Turner, 58, when he refused to apologise for bumping into her friend in Bridlington in late August.

Mr Turner, of Bridlington, was knocked unconscious as he hit the ground, leaving him with a cut between five and seven inches long on the back of his head and died in hospital six days later.

Experts this week told Hull Crown Court this week that O'Hara did not have "anything to do with" Mr Turner's death.

She was handed a six month suspended sentence, a 7pm to 6am curfew for six months and 20 days of rehabilitation after pleading guilty to wounding.

O'Hara attacked Mr Turner while out drinking with four friends, one of whom was known to the victim, in late August.

Prosecutor Andrew Espley said O'Hara confronted Mr Turner in Marlborough Terrace around 1:30am and demanded he apologise for walking into one of her friends. She punched him when he refused.

Mr Espley said: "O'Hara threw her purse onto the floor and launched herself at Mr Turner, punching him in the face once and causing him to lose consciousness when he fell to the floor, hitting his head in the process when he fell."

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"He tried to get up when he regained consciousness but could not do so. Mr Turner did not die until September 3 so she would not have been asked about causing his death. The punch seems to have been impulsive and spontaneous and it was one punch."

Paramedics rushed to the scene and offered Mr Turner medical treatment for his injuries, which were not thought to be threatening, but he refused.

Humberside Police arrested O'Hara, who has no previous convictions, the next day and questioned her over the attack, which she refused to comment on.

Dale Brook, mitigating, said: "She has expressed heartfelt and genuine remorse for what she did that night and what happened to the victim. It has taken a substantial toll on her. She has understandably thought a great deal about whether she is the cause of what happened to the victim. This is a tragic case."

He said O'Hara had suffered "stress and trauma" over the incident which was 'out of character' and took placed during a night of "young abandon" and drinking too much.

"She behaved in an inexcusable way, which had serious consequences for everyone involved. It was out of character and it is likely that she has learned a very painful lesson as a result of what happened that night."

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Mr Brook added that O'Hara had "an awful start in life" with close relatives sent to jail for serious offences.

Handing down the sentence, Judge Sophie McKone said: "Mr Turner has since died but I make it absolutely clear that you bear no responsibility for that. There is evidence from two experts, a pathologist and a neuropathologist, who concluded that your actions did not contribute to his death.

"You were violent towards him. You had been drinking. You asked Mr Turner to apologise because you say that he had bumped into a friend of yours."It may be that he refused to apologise but that was no reason to resort to violence and punch somebody because you were not happy about that. It is absolutely no excuse whatsoever."