A thug has admitted killing a man when he attacked him in a friend’s flat following a row over a £20 debt.

Raymond Whincup had denied murdering Mark Robinson but midway through his trial he pleaded guilty to his manslaughter.

The 40-year-old suffered significant head injuries as a result of the attack and died more than a year later without ever fully recovering, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Whincup entered his plea to manslaughter before his defence case started this afternoon.

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Mr Justice Jay told jurors that the Crown Prosecution Service had accepted the offer of the guilty plea to manslaughter and he was found not guilty of murder as a result.

The court had heard how Mr Robinson had emergency surgery after suffering a bleed on the brain and had injuries consistent with at least one blow to the head and from a rapid fall to the ground.

The Northern Echo: Mark RobinsonMark Robinson

Toby Hedworth KC, prosecuting, had said the attack happened in the early hours of July 28, 2020, in Jonathan Gregory’s flat on Station Road, Redcar.

The jury heard how the witness called the ambulance two hours after finding his friend ‘murmuring’ on the floor in his flat.

A medical expert told jurors at Teesside Crown Court how the 40-year-old had suffered two fractures to his jaw, two fractures to bones in his spinal column and three broken ribs.

Mr Robinson was visiting Mr Gregory at his flat when Whincup and Lewis Skelton turned up before the three of them headed up the accused’s upstairs flat to spend their time drinking.

But Whincup left to go downstairs and when Mr Gregory returned to his downstairs flat, he found Mr Robinson lying injured on the floor.

He said that Whincup was standing over his friend and he said: “I knocked him out. He’s not hard. He’s not a kick-boxer.”

Another witness Lewis Skelton, who has since died, told his mother that Whincup had ‘knocked out’ Mr Robinson before they fled the scene together.

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The court heard how Mr Robinson had suffered a stroke following a previous assault and was concerned that another attack could prove fatal.

His mother, Gillian Harrison, said her son had been bullied by drug dealers on a number of occasions and told her he knew some 'bad people' and wanted to protect me from this.

Whincup, formerly of Station Road, Redcar, will be sentenced tomorrow morning (Wednesday 15).