Father-of-two beaten to death by gang after police ignore six 999 calls from victim and neighbours
By Jaya Narain
Last updated at 4:40 PM on 02nd April 2009
A father-of-two was beaten to death by a gang of drunken thugs just minutes after police told him they were too busy to help.
James Straiton, 59, and his neighbours dialled 999 six times after being threatened in their own homes by the gang.
But police operators said the force was experiencing a 'high volume' of calls and suggested they call a non-emergency number.
Tragedy struck when Mr Straiton, a taxi driver, decided to leave his flat and chase the thugs away himself.
Joshua Spruce (left) and Nigel Goolding
Guilty: Joshua Spruce (left) and Nigel Goolding were today found guilty of kicking grandfather James Straiton to death
Once outside in the street he was repeatedly punched, kicked and stamped on in an horrific and frenzied attack.
Two men, one 6ft 4in tall, jumped and stamped on his head leaving Mr Straiton unconscious on the ground with horrendous head injuries.
The father-of-two suffered a brain haemorrhage, damaged neck vertebrae, fractures to his face, arm, and three broken ribs.
He was found by police lying in a pool of blood and rushed to hospital before being transferred to a specialist neurology unit where he died two weeks later.
Today Joshua Spruce and 6ft 4in Nigel Goolding, both 20 of Northwich, wept when they were convicted of murder at Chester Crown Court.
Paul Blower, also 20, who was also at the scene but did not take part in the attack was acquitted.
James Straiton
Victim: James Straiton died from extensive brain injuries two weeks after the attack
The court was told a high-level inquiry had been launched into the police handing of the 999 calls on the night of the murder.
His brother, Edward Straiton, said: 'I went to see him in hospital where he was so bad that I didn't even recognise him initially.
'He had never been an aggressive man. I had never known him to be in a fight, he was just always laughing and joking.'
In a statement his family said: 'As a family we feel that this incident could have been avoided and is a sad indictment of the society we now live in whereby young men seem to think that it is perfectly acceptable to behave in this way after going for a night out, drinking too much, sometimes taking drugs, and ending the evening by beating someone unrecognisable.
'Their selfish disregard for others has not only ruined our lives but also has far reaching effects on all the families involved in this pointless act of violence.'
The court heard the incident had happened on July 26 last year when the yobs as the thugs walked home after attending a 40th birthday party in the Winnington Recreation Club, near Northwich in Cheshire.
They had each drunk beween five and eight pints of beer and were staggering home making a lot of noise.
Mr Straiton, who lived alone, opened his window to ask them to be quiet but they rushed towards his window and began banging on it and hurling abuse.
Mr Straiton and neighbours then made six calls to Cheshire Police appealing for officers to come down and help.
One woman called 999 twice, the first at 1.11am telling the operator 'Something quite nasty is going off.'
In another call she was audibly tearful as she said there was a disturbance adding: 'I'm too frightened to look out the window. They're trying to get into his flat or get him to come outside.'
Mr Straiton - known as Jock - then made two 999 calls saying the men had climbed over a fence into the apartment complex and telling the operator he felt threatened.
Neighbour Christina Beadle made a call shortly after saying were 'giving lots of abuse to the man downstairs. They're all going mad.'
Another woman called saying she could hear glass smashing and claiming a group of men had climbed over the fence.
The operators told the anxious callers said they would try and send a patrol as quickly as possible but advised them to ring a local police station because of the high volume of emergency calls they were receiving that night.
In all, between 1.11am and 1.30am, six calls were made to the police but officers only arrived at 1.35am.
The disturbance went on for another 15 minutes before Mr Straiton decided to take action himself.
Armed with a hammer, he went outside to tell the thugs to leave but was sent sprawling to the floor.
A final 999 call was made to the emergency services saying a man had been attacked and he was lying on the floor. Police arrived shortly afterwards.
Neighbour Steven Moores, 25, who had been been asleep, told the jury he had been woken by the disturbance and seen Spruce and Blower banging on Mr Straiton's window.
'Jock was opening his window every now and again to tell them to clear off. I was shocked at what was going on. I asked them why they were bothering Jock and told them to leave it.
'I could hear shouting and I heard what I thought was a fight going on. I could hear thugs and bangs that sounded like kicks and punches. I went out to see what had happened and Jock was lying down on the grass. There was blood everywhere around him.'
A 16-year-old girl, who witnessed the assault, said: 'Josh Spruce rugby tackled him and Nigel Goolding came over. The man was on the floor and they were both kicking him.
'He had blood coming from his face and there was blood on the pavement as well. He was lying on the floor snoring.'
Mr Straiton, who has a 14-year-old daughter, was taken to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire where he underwent emergency surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain but he died two weeks later.
Sentencing was adjourned until tomorrow but Judge Roderick Evans said: 'The inevitable sentence is one of life - all I have to consider is the minimum term they must spend in custody.'
A report had also been passed to the court about the police response to the 999 call and Judge Evans said: 'The public will know that the police were very concerned about the response that was made to those calls.
'There has been a high-level investigation into their responses. It is apparent from the information gathered that there was an extraordinarily high degree of police commitment at the time which was responsible for this matter.'
Superintendant Graeme Sims of Cheshire Police today said: 'At the time of this tragic incident we were dealing with 21 different incidents - more than twice the average we normally get at that time on a Saturday night.
'Our operators logged every call and told the caller officers would get there as quickly as they could.'
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Thursday, 2 April 2009
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