On Tuesday, a court heard that a Marks and Spencer security guard is accused of killing a shoplifter with one blow to the head.
When the store security guard punched Jason Page in the head, he fell to the ground. He died in the hospital after getting a brain bleed.
Sabuer Trabelsi, who was 44 and working his last day at the shop, denied a charge of manslaughter at the start of his hearing on Tuesday at Reading Crown Court.
A lawyer said that the security guard lied to the police and his coworkers about what happened by saying that Mr. Page was so drunk that he lost his balance and fell down.
The guard at M&S in Lower Earley, Reading, Berks, chased Mr. Page, who was said to be homeless, out of the store after he “brazenly” stole £300 worth of meat from the shelves.
Theft of Meat and Beer
He is said to have worked with Oswald Walker as a partner.
The CCTV showed them both going into the Marks and Spencer store 30 minutes before it closed on March 31, 2020.
The jury was told that Mr. Page had a “noticeable bulge” on his stomach, which was a plastic bag that he “whipped out” and asked Mr. Walker to fill with expensive meat.
The court heard that the two of them were in and out of the store in less than a minute. As they left, Mr. Walker grabbed a box of Moretti beer.
Mr. Ward-Jackson said that Mr. Trabelsi ran after both men, with the manager of the M&S store, Elliot Cripps, close behind.
Mr. Cripps got Mr. Walker’s box of Moretti beer back, and Mr. Walker ran away in a different direction.
Prosecutor Charles Ward-Jackson said that while this was going on, Mr. Cripps and Mr. Trabelsi kept chasing Mr. Page through the shopping center and towards the nearby BP gas station, trying to get the bag of meat back.
He said that Mr. Trabelsi caught up to Mr. Page and held him while Mr. Cripps ran up from behind and grabbed the bag of meat.
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Knockout Blow
Mr. Ward-Jackson said, “The defendants found the stolen things, but it doesn’t look like that was their goal.” As a security guard, Mr. Trabelsi did something that was against the law and dangerous.
The court heard that when Mr. Page got back on his feet, Mr. Trabelsi gave him a “knockout blow” that made him fall backward and hit the ground.
Mr. Ward-Jackson explained what happened next by saying, “From CCTV, we can see that Mr. Page is lying still and that Mr. Trabelsi and Mr. Cripps are walking back to M&S.” They go back to check on him after a few seconds.
“They stand on top of him. They must have been able to see that he had a bad head injury. When Mr. Cripps saw that Mr. Page was hurt, he called 999.”
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Police Heard Many Different Stories
After the claimed attack, Mr. Page got up and walked to the ambulance so he could be checked out. He soon started bleeding from his nose, so he was taken to intensive care in the hospital, where he died from a brain injury the next day.
A post-mortem test showed that he had several injuries, including a broken nose, right temple, and skull. His death was said to have been caused by a head accident. The toxicology tests showed that his blood had a lot of booze in it.
The tweet below verifies the news:
Marks & Spencer security guard accused of killing shoplifter with single punchhttps://t.co/CGwvbMCovh
— Fran Way (@JournoFran) April 18, 2023
After the incident, Mr. Cripps went back to M&S and told the staff that Mr. Trabelsi had “b—h-slapped” Mr. Page and then punched him again. But Mr. Cripps, who lives in Taunton, Somerset, and is charged with obstructing justice, told the 999 operators that Mr. Page just fell backward.
Mr. Trabelsi, who lives on Kings Road in Reading, Berks, has also been charged with perverting the course of justice because he has changed his story more than once. He told his boss on WhatsApp at first that Mr. Page had fallen backward and hit his head.
The next day, he told someone at work that there had been a “tussle” and that he and Mr. Page had been fighting over the bag. He said he chose to let go, which caused Mr. Page to fall backward.
When he was first arrested, he told the cops, “He lost his balance because he was drunk.” When he was caught for the second time, officers showed him CCTV footage of the blow. He admitted to it, but said it was a “slap” and not a punch.
The trial goes on.
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