A man and two women have been convicted of manslaughter over the death of a Hull army veteran who suffered fatal head injuries after being punched to the ground during a night out.
Martin Chadburn, 53, who was an employee of the Hull 4 Heroes charity, was taken to hospital after the incident in Queen Victoria Square in the early hours of 19 April. He died two days later.
Following a trial at Hull Crown Court, Lukasz Matusiak, 27, Britney Naylor, 20, and Shaytoyia Farrow, 21, were found guilty of manslaughter but cleared of murder. They are due to be sentenced on 27 November.
Two other defendants, Bethany Naylor, 20, and Kristjan Suits, 35, were found not guilty of manslaughter.
Prosecutor David Brooke told jurors at the start of the trial Chadburn suffered “several blows to the head” during the violence, including being stamped on by one of the women. The court heard he died from a fatal brain bleed caused by “a blow or several blows to the head”.
The incident began at about 03:30 BST when Chadburn and friend Steven Grayburn left the Star pub on Carr Lane. A witness to the start of the altercation said she had overheard Grayburn make remarks that were “racist in nature” towards Naylor, Naylor and Farrow.
One of the defendants, Bethany Naylor, then appeared to burn Grayburn on the back of his neck with a cigarette. A video of the incident, which was captured on Farrow’s phone, was recovered by police.
The court heard Naylor said words to the effect of “I’m not having that” after being told about further remarks from Grayburn, and then went after him, hitting him several times.
CCTV played in court showed the disorder escalating, with Suits and Matusiak, who had been standing at a bus stop, becoming involved.
Chadburn was seen hitting Britney Naylor, before being punched several times by Matusiak.
Farrow was then seen stamping on Chadburn as he lay on the floor.
Brooke told the jury that “each of the defendants will be claiming that they were acting in lawful self defence, either of themselves or another”.
However, he added: “Not only are all involved in directly attacking or assisting – it’s also plainly unlawful group violence.”
Matusiak’s defence barrister, Charlotte Baines, rejected any suggestion of a joint enterprise.
She said the Crown was wrongly trying to link together “unconnected groups” as part of a coordinated attack.
Matusiak and Suits only became involved because they believed they were witnessing “two older, larger men attacking young women”, and their actions were an instinctive attempt to protect the women, she told the jury.
“If it were not for the behaviour towards the females, Suits and Matusiak would have remained watching from the bus stop,” she added.