Alan Garbutt: Teenager's murder trial enters final stages

The 17-year-old accepts that he killed Alan Garbutt when the homemade shotgun accidently went off but the prosecution maintains he deliberately blasted the grandfather in the chest from close range.

Jurors heard how he picked up a homemade ‘slam-gun’ and started pointing at people when he became incensed when some of his illicit prescription drugs went missing.

Mr Garbutt died from a single gunshot wound to the chest after he was fatally injured in his Guisborough flat in the early hours of August 8 last year.

Read next: Teenager denies murdering 'father figure' drug dealer with homemade 'slam-gun'

In their closing speeches at Teesside Crown Court the two barristers laid out their arguments for the jury to consider as the trial enters the final stages.

Peter Glenser KC, prosecuting, said the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, shot Mr Garbutt in a ‘momentary flash of anger’ when he discovered his personal stash of drugs went missing.

“He was able to pick from an arsenal of weapons he kept at that flat,” he said.

“He was somebody capable of manipulating people - whether by his temper, his propensity to use weapons or his propensity to hurt people or the force of his personality.”

Alan Garbutt

The court had heard how the teenager had been living at Mr Garbutt’s home for several weeks after he was released from a young offenders’ institute.

Peter Makepeace KC, in teenager’s defence, asked jurors to bear in mind that the only people giving evidence in the prosecution case were either members of the Garbutt family or were customers of the drug dealing family.

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He added: “They have shifted the blame on a 16-year-old, as he was when he was arrested, it was the easiest thing in the world for them to do.”

Police at the scene of the alleged murder at Helmsley House, Guisborough.

Mr Makepeace said he has been portrayed as the leader of the crack house yet he didn’t have his own swipe card to get into the block of flats.

Judge Howard Crowson will sum up the evidence for the jury before sending them out to consider their verdict.

The teenager denies a single charge of murder.