Rock thrown as killed man lay on ground, jury told

A passer-by who gave CPR to an alleged murder victim has told a jury he saw a "cricket ball sized lump of chalk" land near the man's head as he lay on the ground.

Two boys aged 16 and 15 and a 16-year-old girl, who cannot be named due to their age, are accused of murdering Alexander Cashford, 49, from Kent, by hitting him with rocks and a bottle after calling him a paedophile.

Witness Chris Bye told Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday he found Cashford in Leysdown-on-Sea, Kent on 10 August and he was "not in a good way".

The three teenagers deny the charges, but the 16-year-old boy has admitted manslaughter.

Bye, who said he was a former Metropolitan Police officer, told the jury he was staying at a nearby caravan park at the time and was out for a walk with his partner, his son and his son's partner.

As they walked along the seafront, Bye said his son shouted: "Oi, stop it."

"I've never before in my life heard him shouting like that," he told the court.

Bye said he then saw a group of five teenagers and "there was a man lying on the floor".

A teenage boy shouted back at his son with "accusations about the man lying on the ground", according to the witness.

The court previously heard Cashford had given the accused girl his phone number after meeting her by chance.

The teenagers exchanged messages with Cashford using the fake name "Sienna" and arranged to meet him by the village's sea wall, where he was allegedly attacked.

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

Bye said he saw "a cricket ball sized lump of chalk fly through the air and it landed very close to the gentleman lying on the floor, to his head".

Responding to prosecutor Kate Blumgart KC asking if he saw who threw the lump, he told the court he did not but it "definitely came from the group".

He said the man on the floor did not look well at all and was very pale.

When asked if he heard what the group was shouting, Bye said the man "needed medical aid" and his focus "was really on the gentleman".

"As I approached I said 'are you OK' very loudly but was getting no response," he told the court.

"I checked if he was breathing but he wasn't."

Paramedics arrived about 40 minutes later, the jury heard.

The trial continues.

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