MATLOCK: Man denies killing friend

Michael Wayne Carroll - known as Wayne – told a jury at Nottingham Crown Court today (Monday, April 15) that he did not kill Alexander Blick.

Carroll, 44, of Upper Greenhill Gardens, Matlock, claims the killer entered his flat, took his clothes and trainers - which were later found splattered with Mr Blick’s blood - and killed Mr Blick in Matlock’s library gardens.

After Mr Blick’s body was discovered on Sunday, October 16, 2011 Carroll said to police “Why would I have done this? He was a friend of mine.”

During the hearing the court heard the pair were part of a group who spent much of their time drinking alcohol in Hall Leys Park.

Carroll, who is on trial for manslaughter, had lived in Matlock for around 12 years.

Mr Blick, 42, of Dale Road, Matlock Bath, was originally from Plymouth and moved to the town three months before his death.

Friends told police the pair had been arguing that day and reported Mr Blick saying he was going to “smash” Carroll’s “head in”.

But during the trial Carroll denied any argument adding “I didn’t have any problem with Alexander Blick.”

Carroll, who has mental health problems, yet to be formally classified but likely to be schizophrenia, said he had drunk a couple of cans of Special Brew and taken speed on October 15, 2011.

After his friend’s death, blood-splattered shoes were discovered at his flat, along with blood-stained clothing, hidden in bushes close by.

Carroll was caught on CCTV footage wearing the clothes but said he had been home and changed.

He said: “I didn’t kill him. At my place I have a door without a key so anybody could have got in.”

Caroline Bradley, prosecuting said Carroll later confessed the killing to two friends saying “he’d dropped a big lump of concrete on his head” but Carroll denied making the confessions claiming he was just repeating rumours he had heard on facebook.

Miss Bradley said the killing was a “significant and brutal attack on a man who was not defending himself” and added Carroll’s story “defies simple, ordinary common sense.”

The trial continues.