Marc Wright

Marc Wright died after receiving a rib fracture between four and seven days earlier.

A 31-year-old man was tried for his manslaughter but cleared after it was heard that it could not be certain that he had caused his fractured rib when he punched him six days earlier.

It was claimed that the man had assaulted him over a £100 drugs debt, punching him in the stomach and fracturing his rib which caused bleeding from a torn spleen.

The court was told that the case hinged on whether the man on trial had caused the injury.

Marc Wright had been a drug addict. 

On 22 March 2021 Marc Wright had called his mother and pleaded with her to give him £100 to settle a drug debt with a man. His mother, who cared for him, said that when he called her he had sounded frantic, stating that he owed the £100 to the man, who he described as his associate. She said that during the call that the man came onto the line, stating that he wanted his money and threatened Marc Wright.

She said she heard the man shout:

She said that the following day Marc Wright complained about having sore ribs, saying that the man had punched or 'dug' him the previous evening. He collapsed six days later on 27 March 2021 and was taken to hospital where he died the following day, 28 March 2021.

His mother added that Marc Wright had also told her two weeks before the assault on 22 March 2021 that the man had given him a black eye.

The court heard that Marc Wright had had two lodgers at his home in Crummock Avenue, Whitehaven, a man and a woman, and that they were also both drug users, and that the man, who was somebody who resorted to violence, could have posed a physical threat to Marc Wright, or caused his injuries.

His post mortem concluded that his cause of death was due to a ruptured spleen that had caused internal bleeding, his spleen having been torn or ruptured by a broken rib. The pathologist said that his injuries had been caused within the previous four to seven days.

The pathologist said that Marc Wright had suffered a blow sufficiently forceful to break one of his ribs and cause a rupture to his spleen, which was four to six times larger than that of a regular organ and resulted in internal bleeding into the surrounding body cavity, there being about two litres found after his death.

The prosecution claimed that the man had punched Marc Wright on 22 March 2021.

However, the man denied the charges. He made no comment during police interviews and gave no evidence at the trial.

When the jury retired, the judge told them that he could only accept a unanimous verdict in which all twelve of them agreed. There had been twelve members on the jury and they found the man not guilty.

He was acquitted at a second trial in November 2024, a previous trial being abandoned in September 2023.