Accused can’t remember killing

Murder victim Terry Taylor

A man accused of murdering a holidaymaker in a country pub woke up to find his clothes covered in blood — but had no memory of how it got there, a court has been told.

The lifeless body of Terry Taylor, a 59-year-old Oldham paramedic, was found in the Globe Hotel in Cockermouth in the early hours of May 31, 2015.

Michael Sanderson, a 30-year-old plumber from Cumbria, was with Mr Taylor when he was last seen alive but denies murder in a Manchester Crown Court trial.

Mr Sanderson said he accepted he “must have” killed Mr Taylor, but repeatedly insisted he had no recollection of what triggered the fatal attack. The prosecution isn’t challenging the defebnant’s claim of memory loss.

Sanderson said while he couldn’t remember the latter part of his night out with Mr Taylor, he could remember going to bed at his brother’s home afterwards.

Cross-examined by Richard Pratt QC, Sanderson accepted that CCTV showed that he was functioning “perfectly well”, though he’d had a lot to drink, in the moments before the fatal attack, which happened off-camera.

Sanderson can be seen with his arm around Mr Taylor, he can be seen buying drinks, and he can be seen walking in a straight line with Mr Taylor to the area where the older man would meet his death.

Proceeding