12 years for killer who mowed down man outside pub

A killer who mowed down a plumber during a mass brawl outside a pub was jailed for 12 years.

Frankie Bulbrook, 34, was crushed to death beneath the wheels of a blue transit van outside the Gordon Arms in Chislehurst, Kent, on 24 July 2020.

Alfie Tullet, 34, rammed the vehicle into Mr Bulbrook after fighting broke out with weapons including a car jack, the Old Bailey heard.

Tullet admitted violent disorder and manslaughter a week after his trial began in January this year.

Mr Bulbrook’s two half-brothers Alfie, 24, and Harry Boyles, 26, denied but were convicted of violent disorder while three friends of Tullet, Jorge Blackman, 32, Ben Alexander, 28, and Tommy Rose, 27, were cleared of the charge.

Judge Simon Mayo told Tullet: ‘In the midst of that violent disorder it was you who got into the seat of the transit van.

‘You drove the van onto the public green where the disturbance was taking place and you deliberately drove at and over Frankie Bulbrook.

‘I reject the suggestion that you advanced when speaking to the probation officer that you did not intend to run him over.

‘The evidence clearly demonstrates that you did.’

He continued: ‘The impact that Frankie Bulbrook’s untimely death has had on his parents and his sister is movingly described in a number of victim impact statements which had been provided to me.

‘One cannot fail to sympathise with the impact which the fatal events of that day…will have had on them.

‘The fact that the violent disorder was instigated largely by another of their sons will do nothing to mitigate the pain that his parents and other members of his family will feel.

‘It is clear that death was caused in the course of an unlawful act which carried a high risk of death or grievous bodily harm which was or ought to have been obvious to you.

‘Your expression of remorse comes late in the day.

‘It is an inevitable fact that up to the trial you were still maintaining the lie that you were not the driver of the van.’

Frankie Bulbrook

Wearing a grey jumper, Tullet displayed no emotion as he was slapped with his jail term.

Impact statements written by Mr Bulbrook’s father, mother and sister were read out in court.

Dave Bulbrook spoke of the ‘living nightmare’ of life without his son.

‘Frankie had a heart the size of the world,’

Just over a week before his son’s death it was his little brother’s 18th birthday.

‘Frankie said to his little brother, he called him little man, “When the pubs are open I’ll take you for your first official pint.”

‘But it never happened.

‘12 days later he was gone.’

He added: ‘You are expected to pick up and carry on but we don’t know how to.

‘They say time is a healer, don’t believe them it’s a lie.

‘We tried to live to make Frankie proud.

‘The guilt that we carry because we live on is like weaning a coat made of lead.

‘Frankie, you are loved by so many you will be missed every minute of every day.’

Sarah Costello, Frankie’s mother, wept in court as her statement was read aloud.

‘We are all traumatised from losing Frankie and actually witnessing his death,’ she said.

Frankie’s older sister Lucy said the two post-mortems performed on her brother’s body and the injuries he suffered under the transit van reaped ‘catastrophic’ consequences for his body.

‘With Frankie’s body being treated horrendously to the point our funeral directors made a complaint.

‘We couldn’t even dress Frankie when we laid him to rest.’

Earlier Charlotte Newell, QC, prosecuting, said: ‘It began with a verbal confrontation between Ben Alexander on the one side and Harry Boyles on the other on a road named Imperial Way which leads to Belmont Lane open space, known as ‘The Green’.

‘That confrontation developed into a physical fight which involved a car jack and a belt being used as weapons.

‘Both men called for reinforcements and they were joined by Harry’s brothers Frankie Bulbrook and Alfie Boyles and Ben Alexander was joined by his friends Alfie Tullet, Jorge Blackman and Tommy Rose.

‘Mr Tullet, Mr Blackman and Mr Rose drove to the location from the nearby Beehive pub in a blue Transit van.

‘There then followed an altercation in which injuries were sustained.’

Tullet received a 9.5cm slash wound to his buttocks, Blackman a stab wound to his left upper back, and Alexander a 6cm stab wound to his bottom, the court heard.

Alfie Boyles had cuts to his hands and his brother Harry had suffered bruising, swelling and abrasions to various limbs as well as a fractured right arm.

‘It was a fight which appears to be borne out of the pettiest of arguments but ultimately had the most serious of consequences,’ Ms Newell said.

‘Alfie Tullet participated in that fighting before moving away from the green and entering the van in which he, Tommy Rose and Jorge Blackman had arrived and then he, Alfie Tullet, drove on to the Green deliberately driving at Frankie Bulbrook.

‘Mr Tullet failed to knock Mr Bulbrook to the floor initially and then turned the van around and continued the pursuit at Frankie Bulbrook, again driving deliberately towards him which did then cause Mr Bulbrook to fall to the ground.

‘Tullet in that van then drove over Frankie Bulbrook’s body before making away at speed to the nearby Gordon Arms public house with Mr Blackman, Mr Alexander and Mr Rose also in the vehicle.’

As his friends received medical treatment, Tullet tried to get rid of evidence in the streets surrounding the Gordon Arms, jurors heard.

Ms Newell said he left Mr Bulbrook on The Green ‘with catastrophic injuries from which there was no prospect of survival’.

Mr Bulbrook was declared dead at the scene while his brothers disposed of evidence and fled the scene.

‘Furthermore, it is the Crown’s case that Alfie Tullet drove the van onto The Green and quite deliberately chased Frankie Bulbrook down.

‘To chase Frankie as he fled from the vehicle could not have been an act of reasonable self-defence.’

Jeremy Dein QC, defending, said: ‘We recognise the tragedy of the case and we invite my lord to accept that Mr Tullet is truly remorseful for what occurred.’

This remorse was said to be reflected in Tullet’s letter to court, the contents of his pre-sentence report and psychiatric report, as well as his guilty plea.

‘Mr Tullet is not a violent man. He has no convictions for violence. HIs cautions are for minor matters.’

Mr Dein said that his client reacted in ‘panic’ in a violent situation in which two of his friends, Alexander and Blackman, had been stabbed.

Tullet himself was also stabbed in the buttocks before he made what his barrister called ‘the wholly unforgivable but spur of the moment decision’ to drive the van onto the field.

The court also heard that Tullet has a history of mental health issues including a personality disorder, a mal-adapted response to stress and, now, PTSD.

Tullet, of Catlyn Close, East Malling, Kent, admitted manslaughter and violent disorder.

He was given 12 years in jail for the manslaughter and two years and nine months to run concurrently for the violent disorder.

Blackman, of Cadwallon Road, Eltham; Alexander, of Crofton Road, Orpington, Rose, of Dorrit Way, Chislehurst, and the Boyles brothers, both of Imperial Way, Chislehurst, southeast London, all denied violent disorder.

The Boyles brothers were convicted of violent disorder while the other men were cleared.

The brothers fall to be sentenced later this morning.
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