Man accused of manslaughter of Jack Jermy-Doyle after night out in Preston sent frantic messages to friends

The jury having to decided if a man is guilty of killing legal assistant Jack Jermy-Doyle have been told of frantic messages sent between the defendants after the attack.

Prosecution barrister Michael Hayton KC said the manslaughter charge against Jake Parkinson, 22, had resulted from an incident on August 12, 2022 at the corner of Harris Street and Birley Street – just outside the Crown Court Sessions House.

Parkinson and his co-accused Jak Fairclough, who has admitted manslaughter, came across Jack who was out with his friend Robert Jones.

Jack was just two weeks short of his 26th birthday and, having been punched by Fairclough, he fell to the floor hitting his head on the pavement. He died in hospital two days later.

Before the close of the prosecution, the 12-strong jury at Preston Crown Court were was told of frantic messages between Parkinson and some of his friends when they saw in the media the morning after the attack that Jack was in a coma in hospital.

Fairclough contacted Parkinson and said he would be handing himself in to police that morning. But Parkinson at first decided to lie low, saying he was not going to turn himself in on a Friday because he would have to spend the weekend in a cell.

“Going to jail me,” was one of his messages with a snoozing face emoji. “See you at HMP Wymott.” He also wrote “shaving my hair off, they won’t know it’s me.”

He claimed: “Honestly, the guy came at me. I only defend myself.” But he added: “It wasn’t me who hit him. I was just messing about with his belly, then Jak hit him.”

He left his house, went to his mother’s and told friends: “Might as well go to Blackpool for the weekend. My head is smoked. If they get me tomorrow (Saturday) I’m not out until Monday. That’s all I’m thinking.”

And finally he messaged: “I’m just going to hand myself in. My mum wants me to. I’m going to have to.”

One of his group responded by saying: “You're a very stupid boy.”

Parkinson was arrested later that day while he was drinking in a social club near his home at Lea, Preston.

DI Bryony Midgley, who was the senior investigating officer in the case, read out the details of an interview conducted with Parkinson on the Saturday, more than 24 hours after the assault.

In the interrogation he had said: “He was getting into Jak’s face. I said to him: ‘Look mate we don’t want any trouble.’

“They were having an argument of some sort. I didn’t want to get involved. I just wanted to stay out of it. We’d had a good night and I just wanted to go home.

“I didn’t know what to do. I feel bad, but I thought I was in danger. I thought something was going to kick off.

“I gave him a dig in the belly. He wasn’t hurt, he didn’t move. He carried on with Jak, he didn’t say anything to me. I didn’t want to fight him. I didn’t want to hurt him. If I’d wanted to hurt him I’d have hit him in the face.  

“The situation just didn’t need to happen. There was no point in it happening. It was over and done with in 20 seconds. I said to Jak ‘we need to go.’”

Parkinson said he was “mortified” when he heard how seriously hurt Jack was. But he told police: “I didn’t cause him any harm.

“I felt horrible. It could happen to anyone. It’s someone’s kid. At the end of the day it’s horrible. It’s not right.

“I just want you to know I didn’t mean to (hurt him). I didn’t want to hurt him. I chose the meatiest part of his body (stomach/ribs) so I didn’t hurt him.”

(Proceeding)