An 18-year-old was allegedly beaten to death by eight men as part of a "war" between older drug dealers, a jury heard today.
Michael Toohey, who had allegedly been pressured into selling drugs for a man referred to as "Gerry", died on Saturday, April 16 this year, after a group of men chased him into the Mobiles Junction shop on Monument Place, off London Road in the city centre. Eight men and a 14-year-old boy are on trial at Liverpool Crown Court charged with Mr Toohey's murder after he was found unresponsive with head and neck injuries.
Today the jury heard from a friend of Mr Toohey's, a young woman who cannot be named for legal reasons. Gordon Cole, KC, prosecuting, played a video recording of her police interviews in which she described chatting to Mr Toohey and two other friends outside the TJ Hughes shop on London Road, before the violence erupted.
