Man to learn his fate after murdering mother’s ex-partner

Jack Naylor, 22, was convicted earlier this week after a trial into the death of 44-year-old Tydesley man Thomas Gomm in Irvine Avenue, Boothstown, on December 15 last year.

A trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard how Naylor had attacked the victim after they and various others, including Naylor’s mother, Mr Gomm’s ex-partner, had been drinking together.

Opening the trial, prosecutor Mark Ford KC said: “We may never know what had prompted the defendant to attack Thomas Gomm.”

Mr Ford told the jury of three men and nine women how Mr Gomm was “poorly and vulnerable” and “clearly no match for a younger, fitter, faster and stronger man like the defendant”.

The trial took place at Minshull Street Crown Court (Image: Anthony Moss) He told the court how during his stay at the house on Irvine Avenue, Naylor had been “play fighting” with his mother, prompting Mr Gomm to tell him to stop.

His mother later went to a friend’s house on Leigh Road, only for Naylor to arrive “wild-eyed and agitated, with blood on his hands”.

Police were called to Leigh Road and Mr Ford said that he behaved aggressively towards them and called one of them a racial slur.

He said this was “demonstrative of a young man who cannot control his temper.”

Mr Gomm was later found at Irvine Avenue “unresponsive, in a pool of blood”.

Despite the efforts of the emergency services, he died two days later, on December 17.

A postmortem examination by Home Office pathologist Dr Charles Wilson found Mr Gomm has suffered injuries around the head and jaw and gave his cause of death as “traumatic head injuries”.

Giving evidence in his own defence later in the trial, Naylor claimed that he had been defending himself and had “only thrown three punches”.

He denied having kicked or stamped on Mr Gomm and on seeing footage of him with his injuries said he did not know how he ended up in that state.

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Cross examining the defendant, Mr Ford said: “You’re not suggesting that some random passing psychopath has popped in and done this in your absence are you?”

Naylor said he did not know how this happened.

The jury ultimately convicted Naylor, of Browning Avenue, Atherton, of murder and of racially aggravated harassment towards one of the police officers.

But he was found not guilty of two counts of assaulting emergency workers.

Naylor will be brought back before Judge Maurice Greene to learn his fate on July 28.

Source – INDIA TV