Family's anguish as manslaughter trial collapses

It happened because crucial medical evidence relating to how Kyle Grand died was declared inadmissable and fresh samples could not be taken because his body had already been cremated.

Wayne Grand (43), of Herringthorpe, said that the family and friends of his 18-year-old son had been denied a satisfactory ending to a “nightmare year” by a series of medical and administrative blunders.

It had left the man charged with his son’s manslaughter with no chance of a fair trial and the family with no chance of justice, he said.

“The pathologists, the Crown Prosecution Service and the police all had a part to play and we were let down by each of them at some point,” said the devastated dad, who is now considering further legal action.

“We’ve had a nightmare year but the case falling apart means that it is set to go on. We’ll never see justice for Kyle now or know the truth of how he died.”

Judge Scott Wolstenholme was forced to clear Matthew Kirby (19), of Larkhill Close, Parkgate, of manslaughter at Leeds Crown Court on Friday after it emerged that Kyle’s body had been cremated, without a thorough postmortem or vital tissue samples being gathered, before charges were brought against the teenager.

The move denied Kirby’s defence council the ability to examine vital evidence and challenge the findings of Home Office pathologist Dr Kenneth Shorrock, who concluded that Kyle had died as a result of a blow to the neck.

Friday’s hearing heard how Kyle and Mr Kirby were among a group of friends on a night out together in Leeds last November when a fight broke out.

An independent eye witness said that Mr Kirby had punched Kyle several times in his head and had kicked him on the back of the head as he fell to the ground.

Mr Kirby admitted that there was a scuffle, in the course of which Kyle collapsed, but did not accept responsibility for any blow to his neck.

Kyle’s heart stopped beating following the incident, at Woodhouse Street, Leeds, and efforts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

Dr Shorrock conducted an autopsy on Kyle’s body the day after he died, concluding that a blow to the right side of the neck had compressed the vagus nerve and carotid sinus stopping the heart.

But Dr Shorrock carried out his examination without the benefit of the teenager’s medical history which detailed a minor epileptic fit at the age of seven.

A second independent pathologist, who carried out a postmortem at the request of the coroner before he released the body for cremation, also had incomplete information.

Defence pathologist Prof Guy Rutty said: “The crucial issue of cause of death is based on an incomplete post mortem examination that failed to eliminate natural or other cause of death other than those provided by Dr Shorrock.”

By the time charges were brought against Mr Kirby, Kyle’s ashes had been laid to rest at a memorial garden at Rotherham Crematorium.

Judge Wolstenholme said that had Mr Kirby’s solicitors known of the body being released “it is inconceivable that they would not have objected to that course and would not have wished to obtain their own examination.”

Admitting that “the cause of death is a crucial issue between prosecution and defence” Judge Wolstenholme said that it was with regret, particularly to the family of the deceased who were bound to feel they had been denied justice, that he agreed to a defence application to exclude Dr Shorrock’s evidence.

Mr Grand said: “If the police had charged Mr Kirby earlier the postmortems would have been carried out correctly.

“If Dr Shorrock had taken the samples he was supposed to the case would have gone ahead. We feel completely let down by the system.

“It’s not that I want to see Matthew Kirby locked away, I just wanted the truth about what happened and for the law to run its correct course.

“We were hoping this court case would bring some kind of conclusion to all that has happened and end the heartbreak that we all still feel every day.”