Accused 'looked like he'd been in a fight' - court

A teenage boy accused of murder "looked as though he had been in a fight", a court has heard.

Alexander Cashford, 49, from Kent, was found with multiple injuries in Leysdown, on the Isle of Sheppey, on 10 August.

A 16-year-old girl and two boys aged 15 and 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have all denied one count of murder. One of the boys has admitted manslaughter.

Witness Tony Sluce, who was staying in a chalet in Leysdown, told Woolwich Crown Court he had been walking with his wife on the evening Cashford was injured.

He said they walked past two teenagers, a boy and a girl.

Sluce told the jury the boy "looked as though he'd been in a fight, he had red marks on his face" and "grazing on his knees".

The trial has been shown mobile phone footage said to be taken by the teenage girl, which showed Cashford running and falling over, and one of his apparent pursuers falling over him.

Sluce told the jury he heard the boy say: "I dropped him. He's on the deck. He was a paedo".

The court previously heard Cashford met the girl by chance on 8 August, gave her his phone number and exchanged about 75 messages, believing he was in contact with a 16-year-old girl named Sienna.

Cashford then met the girl two days later in Leysdown, where he was attacked with rocks and a bottle, and about an hour later was dead.

Jurors were previously told that the girl shouted, called Cashford a paedophile and said she was 16, while filming the attack.

The trial continues.

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