Liverpool court hears a Merseyside drinker died following a row over spitting on a pub floor

Nov 28 2012 by Gary Stewart, Liverpool Echo

A DRINKER died after a row about spitting on the floor in a Merseyside pub turned violent.

John Burns (left) punched Kenny Wylde after he told him off for his ‘lack of respect’ to the people who had to clean it up and Wylde offered him a fight, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Burns, 33, was charged with manslaughter after the Yates’s Wine Lodge regular hit his head on the floor and died from a fractured skull six days later.

The SPL International worker and his colleague Tony Clark (right), 37, are also accused of going on to 'cook up' a defence that he attacked Mr Wylde because he threatened to stab him.

Andrew Ford, prosecuting, told jurors that both defendants were 'decent men, working men' who had gone out for a drink when the incident took place.

They were in a group of four who had been playing pool and drinking at the Seamus O'Donnell pub in Birkenhead on Friday February 10 and moved on to Yates’s Wine Lodge, on Exmouth Street, at about 6.30pm.

While they were at the bar indulging in good-natured football banter, Kenny Wylde, who was a complete stranger, began interjecting in an 'obnoxious' way, saying Burns wasn't a true Liverpool fan and showing off his LFC tattoos.

They ignored him for a couple of hours until about 8.40pm when, the court heard, Kenny Wylde, 32, started spitting on the floor and was challenged by Burns, who said: “Would you do that in your own home? Have some respect. The barmaids have to clean that up.”

Mr Ford said: “We don’t know the exact words but the evidence suggests they agreed, Burns and Kenny, to sort it out outside, in something of a straightener.”

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