Pictured: Alan Wyatt, 68, who was allegedly brutally murdered by Michael Bryant
A wheelchair-bound pensioner was bludgeoned to death on Valentine’s Day after complaining about his upstairs neighbour ‘dealing drugs’, a murder trial heard today.
Alan Wyatt, 68, was allegedly brutally murdered by Michael Bryant, 36, after he told him he was ‘fed up with his behaviour’ above his home in Gillingham, Kent.
Bryant is on trial at Maidstone Crown Court accused of inflicting ‘catastrophic head injuries’ on the amputee before starting a fire in his ground-floor property.
Those who discovered the blaze at around 10.30am on February 14 last year were ‘met with a scene of horror’ with flames up to two metres high coming from the area near to Mr Wyatt’s bed.
The accused, who lived in the upstairs flat, was arrested in the early hours as he slept in a doorway. His face was still spotted with Mr Wyatt’s blood, projected, it is alleged, as he battered his vulnerable victim to death.
He denies murder and arson over the incident.
Mr Wyatt, described as ‘gentle and lonely’, was a father to three children and had lived in Brighton, East Sussex before moving to Gillingham.
The court heard he had recently reconnected with one of his sons after a number of years at the time of his murder.
Prosecutor Oliver Saxby told the court: ‘Alan Wyatt [was] an increasingly disgruntled neighbour whose misfortune it was to live under the defendant’s flat and who had begun to get fed up with the defendant and his behaviour.
‘He was by all accounts a friendly man often seen by passersby sitting in his wheelchair outside his address having a cigarette.’
The flat in Gillingham, Kent, where Mr Wyatt, 68, was found dead on 14 February last year
But Mr Wyatt’s kindness was ‘readily exploited’ by Bryant, allegedly a habitual heroin and crack cocaine user and occasional drug dealer, the court heard.
The pensioner made it clear he was unhappy with the various comings and goings from Bryant’s flat, the court heard.
On the morning of February 14, Mr Wyatt was attacked in his flat and received horrific head injuries.
‘His face had been stoved in,’ Mr Saxby said. ‘It had been bludgeoned with some sort of heavy implement and an attempt had been made to set his body alight.’
Witnesses arriving at the flat saw ‘orange flames up to two metres high’ and dark grey smoke billowing from the flat.
Bryant was arrested and initially denied having been anywhere near the flat at the time of the attack. However the jury were told Bryant now accepts he was there when Mr Wyatt was attacked.
Mr Saxby said: ‘But instead of having the courage to admit the truth, he is now saying the attack was carried out by somebody else who he tried to stop but was scared.
‘There’s absolutely nothing to suggest that there was anyone else present when Alan Wyatt was attacked.
‘It is a last-ditch attempt by a guilty man to escape responsibility for the unspeakable crime he has committed.’
he attack itself was said to have lasted a matter of minutes, but left blood on walls, furniture and the instruments which were used to bludgeon him with.
Mr Wyatt had had his left leg amputated after developing circulation problems in 2014 and relied on a wheelchair and mobility scooter to get around. He also wore a colostomy bag.
Having been living with and caring for his dementia-suffering mother until she died in 2017, he then moved into his specially adapted, one-bedroom flat in Gillingham.
Mr Saxby said Mr Wyatt’s vulnerability may have played a part in what Bryant allegedly did to him, ‘or at least the ferocity’ of the attack.
‘Alan Wyatt was, the defendant probably thought as he was attacking him, someone who’s life had little value,’ added the prosecutor.
Despite his limited mobility and poor health, Mr Wyatt was independent and stubborn – characteristics which may have also played a part in his alleged murder, said Mr Saxby.
Bryant was already living in the upstairs council-owned flat when Mr Wyatt moved in.
He allowed it to be used as a base by local drug runners, causing tension between himself and Mr Wyatt.
In 2018, the pensioner began to complain about the various toings and froings from Bryant’s home, and just a month before he died Mr Wyatt texted his son, William, with whom he had recently been reunited, about what was going on.
Just six days before the alleged murder, Mr Wyatt also informed a police community safety officer and a council employee of his concerns.
Bryant had also ‘borrowed or stolen’ £30 from Mr Wyatt who, said Mr Saxby, wanted it back and ‘had had enough’
The jury heard that after being told he was charged with murder, Bryant offered to fight the police officer who had just charged him.
The trial, which is expected to last four weeks, continues.