Michael McNee

Michael McNee was found dead at a flat in Chestnut Court, Mountsorrel on the morning of Friday 22 May 2020.

His 41-year-old friend was tried for his murder but acquitted.

Although Michael McNee had been ill due to his drug habit, it was heard that his death was caused by injuries to his head. He was found dead in a bedroom at his flat.

The man tried had been a friend of Michael McNee's and had been staying with him during the Covid lockdown. However, it was heard that in the days before his death that tensions between them had been rising and that the shouting and aggression heard by neighbours over the previous weeks and months had become the norm. The neighbours said that Michael McNee and the man tried had repeated verbal arguments which often resulted in the man tried losing his patience and becoming physically violent.

The trial heard that Michael McNee had been involved in a car accident on a pedestrian crossing in Birstall when he was 18-years-old that had left him with serious injuries that had required three operations to his hip and legs and that he had subsequently become addicted to the opiate painkillers and later became addicted to heroin and went onto a Methadone programme which he was still on up to the time of his death.

It was heard that following the accident that Michael McNee was awarded £50,000 but that within a year the money had gone on drugs. He was then later asked to leave the family home because of his bad behaviour, which included stealing things to sell so that he could buy drugs. It was noted that he had also become an alcoholic.

At the end of 2019 Michael McNee suffered liver and kidney failure, but recovered after which he went home. However, he continued to drink and was asked to leave and he went back to his flat in Chestnut Court. After his health deteriorated, he was said to have needed blood thinning injections and assistance from home carers.

His mother said that she last heard from him three weeks before his death when he phoned to thank her for buying him a new television. She said, 'Michael had a number of friends, mainly alcoholics, that he would often take in'. She said that she knew the man that was tried for his murder, stating that she knew him as a man that had a 'big drinking problem'. However, she noted that the man would often clear up after Michael McNee. She said, 'But he wasn't his official carer. Michael was grateful for the help. I understand they had arguments every now and then. Michael was worried his friends would steal his money and his stash'.

Michael McNee's brother said that his drinking made him annoying and impossible at times but that after his health deteriorated he became completely vulnerable. He said that Michael McNee had been best friends with the man that was tried for his murder and that they would fall out and make up again. He noted that when he last saw Michael McNee five or six weeks before his death that he had two black eyes and told him that the man tried had head-butted him during an argument.

At the trial, neighbours stated that they heard screaming and shouting coming from the flat on the night before Michael McNee died, but noted that loud arguments were not unusual. Michael McNee was also heard to have called out for help.

One neighbour said that on the night before Michael McNee died that she heard whipping noises and Michael McNee saying, 'Stop, stop please, it hurts, it hurts'. The neighbour also heard Michael McNee cry out from the balcony, 'get off, leave me alone you bully', and 'help, help'.

A neighbour that lived in a flat above said that they heard Michael McNee say, 'leave me alone' and to call out for help three or four times.

The trial heard that neighbours heard the banging and crashing of pots and pans and the sound of the men moving from the living room to the bedroom, with Michael McNee screaming, 'help me, help me, please', but that at 12.15am it all went quiet and that Michael McNee's body was later found in that bedroom, having suffered a blunt impact to his back that had caused internal bleeding.

Paramedics arrived at the flat at 10.37am and then informed the police. However, the man tried had left the flat but was arrested later the same day.

The prosecution said, 'Because of the medication he was on he would have been more prone to bleeding, but it was that assault that caused the injury resulting in his death. We're unable to say what was used, be it a weapon or a shod foot. The fact both were affected by drink at the time is no excuse for his actions'.

The prosecution at the trial claimed that the man on trial had either struck Michael McNee with an implement, or kicked him or stamped on him with his shoes on, noting that Michael McNee died from internal bleeding caused by a blow towards the left side of his back and not from anything to do with organ failure, alcoholism or drug misuse, adding, 'His death was not a consequence of his myriad of health issues'. The court heard that the medical evidence indicated that he had been beaten with an implement that had a pattern to it on his left side towards his back. The prosecution added, 'There were a number of other bruises suggestive of other blows being inflicted'.

The prosecution further added, 'The defendant knew better than anyone that Michael McNee was extremely vulnerable'.

However, the man denied assaulting Michael McNee and claimed that Michael McNee fell over whilst drunk and injured himself. He said that he had slept on the couch on the night and denied there had been any physical violence between them. He said that he woke up at 10am and watched some television after which he found Michael McNee dead on a mattress on the floor in his bedroom. He said that a friend then came over to the flat and called for an ambulance.

He admitted that he had been alone at the flat the night before with Michael McNee and that no one else had been there, but denied having assaulted him, stating that the neighbours had been mistaken in what they had heard and that Michael McNee had injured himself in a heavy fall whilst intoxicated.

The man was tried at Leicester Crown Court but found not guilty on 1 December 2020.