Cecil Howell

Cecil Howell was found unconscious in Sheddington Road, Kingstanding and later died in the General Hospital.

A 76-year-old man admitted striking him, and was charged with manslaughter, but the charge was thrown out by the Birmingham Stipendiary who said that he didn't think that a jury would convict.

Cecil Howell was found lying unconscious in Sheddington Road near Jerry's Lane in Erdington on the afternoon of Saturday 13 August 1949. He was taken to hospital but died the following day, Sunday 14 August 1949, having suffered head injuries and lacerations.

The police said that they were particularly interested in interviewing a man and a woman who were believed to have been seen with a pram at the junction of Streetly Road and Jerry's Lane at the time of the attack and who might have witnessed it. They were said to have also had a light brown spaniel with them.

The 76-year-old man that was charged with Cecil Howell's manslaughter was partly crippled with arthritis and had defective eyesight.

At the court hearing, the prosecution said that the man had told the police that after 'a bit of unpleasantness' in a public-house, that Cecil Howell intercepted him on his way home and that he struck Cecil Howell once, saying that it was not a hard blow. He then told the police that he later learned that Cecil Howell had been found unconscious in the road.

The doctor that carried out the post-mortem said that Cecil Howell revealed no signs that he had been struck a hard blow and that his death from cerebral haemorrhage was consistent with him having fallen after being struck.

Cecil Howell had lived in Abbeyfield Road in Erdington.