Pensioner ‘murdered’ by escaping burglars

A pensioner was mown down and killed by burglars he caught raiding his home after he returned from a trip to the dentist, a court heard.

Peter Lee, 75, was crushed under the wheels of their Volkswagen Sharan as they tried to escape, it is claimed.

The attack was captured on a mobile phone video filmed by one of his neighbours in Tooting, south London.

Jurors were today (TUES) shown the footage of the car being ‘deliberately’ driven into Mr Lee by Jonathan Palmer, 31.

Palmer killed himself in November last year while awaiting trial but his brother Stuart Palmer, 29, and half-brother Jason Lewin, 34, are accused of murder on the basis of joint enterprise.

The Old Bailey heard Lewin was looking for several thousand pounds worth of drugs he had grown on his cannabis farm in Sutton which was stolen by three unknown men.

Lewin vowed revenge after serving a two year prison sentence for cannabis cultivation, the court heard.

On 30 May last year Lewin and Jonathan Palmer tried to break into a flat in Farnham Court, Cheam, while shouting: ‘We want our two grand.’

The next day Lewin and Jonathan Palmer armed themselves with a knife and an iron bar to target a house in Lessingham Avenue, Tooting, and threaten the occupants.

A few hours later Lewin and both Palmer brothers drove to the home of Mr Lee in Welham Road, Tooting, while he was away at a dentist appointment.

The attackers burst into the house armed with knives and stormed into the kitchen before being forced back into the garden by Mr Lee’s sons Danny and Terry.

Prosecutor Alan Kent said: ‘The fight continued and Jason Lewin ended up in the garden pond and was held there by Danny Lee.

‘At one point Stuart Palmer said he had enough and ran to the fence and scaled it, followed by Jonathan Palmer.

‘It was around this time that Peter Lee arrived back at the house.

‘Seeing the violence taking place he called 999.

‘Within moments of Jonathan Palmer having scaled the fence the VW Sharan crashed through the garden fence from the road and into the garden.

‘It then reversed out of the garden back into the road.’

Footage from the neighbour’s mobile phone shows Danny Lee carrying a brick and approaching the car in the road while Peter Lee ‘bent down to pick something up’.

The vehicle then surges forward again into Peter Lee, who falls under the front left wheel.

Mr Lee suffered fatal head injuries and died in hospital just over seven hours later at 12.10am on 2 June.

The prosecutor said: ‘It is important to consider the way that car was driven, whether this was a deliberate act by Jonathan Palmer driving the vehicle at and into Peter Lee with intent to do him serious bodily harm.

‘The prosecution say that the three of them acting together embarked on a joint enterprise.

‘Their joint enterprise was to go into that house and inflict serious bodily harm on the occupants. In fact serious bodily harm was inflicted – not by knife but by use of the car.

‘The three of them were all in it together.’

Lewin, of Glenthorpe Road, Morden, and Stuart Palmer, of Kew Bridge Lane, Brentford, both deny murder and aggravated burglary.

Lewin also denies two counts of attempted aggravated burglary and one of affray relating to the two previous raids.

John Palmer, of Green Wrythe Lane, Sutton, was charged with murder but died before trial.

The trial continues.

ends