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Eamon Kearns

Age: 28

Sex: male

Date: 5 Aug 1963

Place: Aldershot

Eamon Kearns was killed in a fight in a carpark on the night of Monday 5 August 1963.

A 31-year-old Irish man was tried for his manslaughter but acquitted.

The court heard that Eamon Kearns's injuries could not have been caused by a fist, but could have been caused by a fall or someone kicking him or stamping on him.

The Irish man, who had been lodging in Lime Street, in Aldershot, admitted having had an argument with a man and to have hit him a few times with his fists, but he said that it hadn't been enough to have killed him and that the man had been all right when he left.

Eamon Kearns had been a builder's labourer from County Galway and had lodged in Lower Farnham Road in Aldershot.

He was found lying in a car park in Aldershot with severe facial injuries at about 11.25pm and died in hospital 25 minutes later.

When the Irish man was seen at his lodgings in Lime Street and told that he answered the description of a man seen running away from the scene, he said:

To tell the truth I had an argument with a man. It was his fault.

When he was told that the man had died, he said:

I am sorry he is dead. I cannot tell how he died. I had a few clouts with my fist. It is not going to kill a man. Then I left.

When he was later charged with murder, he said:

As I told you before, he was all right when I left him.

At the trial at the Hampshire Assizes on 17 December 1963 the Irish man was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter at the judges direction.

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see National Archives - ASSI 26/291, DPP 2/3710

see Nottingham Guardian - Wednesday 18 December 1963

see Liverpool Echo - Wednesday 07 August 1963

see Nottingham Guardian - Thursday 08 August 1963

see Leicester Evening Mail - Wednesday 07 August 1963

see Birmingham Mail - Wednesday 07 August 1963