Adrian was killed by a single punch. But who delivered the fatal blow?
How on earth had a late night drink with a life-long friend ended like this? As one young man sobbed with relief into his mother's arms outside Bristol Crown Court, another family feared they would never get justice….
It was November, 2010 and, after a nine-month ordeal, a jury had taken just 90 minutes to acquit student Tom Minshull, 20, of the manslaughter of Adrian Cooksey, 50.
But why on earth had Tom stood trial for killing the dad-of-three in the first place? Had this innocent student been framed?
On the night he was killed, in March 2009, Adrian Cooksey, a building and plumbing firm boss, had gone out drinking with Richard Elmes, 51. He and Richard had been mates since the age of six.
As the men drank in various Melksham pubs, including the Parson’s Nose, they were joined by another friend, Andrew Fletcher. As the boozy night continued, they went back for some more drinks at Andrew's home near Spa Road. At around 2.30am, Adrian and Richard left together to catch a taxi home.
But ten minutes later, an off-duty Police Community Support Officer found Adrian lying in a pool of blood in Spa Road. He was alone, unconscious and barely breathing, with a trickle of blood seeping from his ear.
Taken to the Royal United Hospital, Bath, Adrian, a popular member of the Bradford-on-Avon Cricket Club, was pronounced dead later that morning.
A pathologist said Adrian - who could have been four times over the legal drink-drive limit - died from an overwhelming brain injury when part of his head hit the ground, following a heavy blow to the face. In other words, he'd been killed by a single punch.
But who had hit him?
Richard Elmes told police he was 'devastated' by his friend's death, but had been too drunk to recall anything beyond them going their separate ways at the humpback bridge on Spa Road.
Then CCTV footage showed two young students, Jamie Bristow and Tom Minshull, both 20, on Spa Road at the time of the attack. They were on their way home, after drinking in Bath with friends.
When police interviews revealed that Tom had sustained a hand injury that evening, he was arrested and charged with Adrian's manslaughter.
Giving evidence at Tom's trial, Richard Elmes again said he'd been too drunk to remember what happened, insisting he'd not been with Adrian when he'd been punched.
But the evidence against Tom was weak…
Expert witness, forensic scientist, Benedict Spencer, analysed CCTV footage that allegedly showed Minshull standing beside Adrian moments before he was killed. He concluded that the time delay in the footage meant Tom could have been further down the road at the time of the attack.
Various character witnesses testified that Tom was not a violent person, and Tom himself told the court he had 'never hit anyone' in his life.
The case against Tom was dismissed within 90 minutes and a representative for the Minshull family read a statement outside the court on their behalf. 'There was never a case against Tom and today's verdict prevented turning this matter into a double tragedy... Mr. Cooksey lost his life and someone is responsible.'
Referring to the Cooksey family, the statement said, 'They have shown dignity, huge courage and control during the trial and we sincerely hope that they, too, believe today's verdict was the right one.'
Tom added: 'I hope that they don't think the verdict was wrong and they believe I am innocent. '
But while Tom was in the clear, Adrian Cooksey's family - his fiancée, Tracey Suggitt, 41, and his three sons Simon, 26, Adam, 25, and Michael, 22 - were no closer to knowing who had killed him. Adam Cooksey said: 'Although we are not happy with the verdict, we fully understand the jury's decision, not being able to prove the facts beyond reasonable doubt.’
But while Wiltshire police may have made a mistake by prosecuting Tom, they weren't going to let Adrian's killer get away with it. In December 2010, they launched a fresh investigation. Adam Cooksey told a press conference: 'It is now nearly two years since our dad was killed and although this time has passed, the sadness and devastation that we feel has not gone away....'We have decided to offer a reward of £20,000 for information which leads to the conviction of the person who took dad away from us.
'He was a good man, he was kind and caring and we were a close family. We all miss him and there is not a day that goes by that we don't think about him.... Nothing can ever ease our pain, but to find out who was responsible for his death would mean we can finally start to move on.'
The incentive of a reward would surely encourage someone to break their silence. But with no DNA linking a killer to the scene, and only poor CCTV footage, the evidence was scant.
But when police re-examined the CCTV footage, they discovered that gaps in it - as identified by Benedict Spencer at Tom's trial - meant that Richard Elmes could have been there when the fatal blow was delivered. But surely Adrian's life-long friend wouldn't have killed him and lied about it. What possible motive could he have had?
In February 2010, detectives took the radical decision to record phone calls between Elmes and his wife. In one call, Elmes said: 'The only bit I told porkies about was that I went down [Spa Road]. I remember going down that way and then coming back up but I never went right the way down there.'
He described getting into an argument with Adrian, calling him 'stroppy', 'punchy', and 'narky'.
Elmes went on: 'I can't say I went down there, we had a row, and I turned around and came back, unless they want to know about the row.'
And despite having lied about the argument at Tom Minshull's trial, he said, 'He [Tom] must've gone through hell, the young lad, if he didn't do it. Gone through court and all that business.'
But, if Elmes had lied under oath about having a row with Adrian, had he also lied about punching him and leaving him for dead?
Based on the covert recordings, Elmes was arrested and charged with the manslaughter of his childhood friend, as well as perjury for lying about the argument at Minshull's trial.
When he appeared at Bristol Crown Court in August this year, he admitted perjury but denied manslaughter.
The jury listened to the conversation between the defendant and his wife and, when questioned about them, Elmes admitted that the row between him and Adrian had been about an affair he'd once had. He told the court that he had had an affair with a married woman in 1984. The woman’s husband was friends with both Richard and Adrian, and Richard had often wondered if Adrian had ever told the husband about this sexual liaison.
He told the jury that on that night he asked Adrian if he had told the husband, and Adrian replied, 'Yes. What are you going to do about it?'
Shocked by the response, Richard then told Adrian he was going to go home - leaving him near Spa Road's humpback bridge.
When asked by prosecutor Ian Lawrie QC why he'd lied about about this at the original trial, Richard said: 'Embarrassment. If it came out in a small town it would have been all over the papers. Panic. I suppose I didn't want it coming out.'
But Mr. Lawrie also revealed that CCTV footage taken from outside a petrol station proved that Elmes had also lied about the route he'd taken home that night.
Asked by Mr Lawrie if he was 'trimming evidence' to suit himself, Richard Elmes, who still denied striking Adrian, replied: 'I was mistaken.’
He'd admitted to being a liar, but not a killer…
But, after over 13 hours of deliberation, the jury delivered a 10-2 majority verdict of guilty.
When the verdict was read out, Elmes didn't react. But Adrian's sons appeared emotional in the public gallery.
In an unusual move, the judge, Neil Ford, granted Elmes bail to get his affairs in order, but told him a custodial sentence was inevitable.
Speaking after the verdict, Detective Inspector Ian Saunders, from Wiltshire Police, said, 'For three years Richard Elmes continually and deliberately lied about his involvement to police. He lied under oath at the trial of a young man he knew was not responsible for Adrian's death.'
Outside court, Adam Cooksey reacted angrily.
'He's killed a man and he's let out of the building to sort his affairs out,' he said. 'I think that's a disgrace myself.’ But he added, 'We know who killed our dad now....It's just utter relief to be stood here and get the verdict we wanted. I knew it was him, the jury knew it was him. It's done with... and we can put it to bed. The poor boy who went through the trial in the first place should never have been there, should he? We all know that.
'[Dad] was a nice guy. He was never ever going to have a confrontation with anyone. He didn't deserve to die like that, to be left on the street. That's the thing that upsets us the most I think.... He [Elmes] says he was his true friend. Why did he leave him on the street to die? You don't do that if you're a friend.'
But friendship and honesty clearly counted for very little in Richard Elmes' twisted mind.
Elmes was jailed for five years and two months by Judge Neil Ford at Bristol Crown Court on November 19, 2012 for manslaughter and perjury.
END