Jury in the murder trial of Lincoln pensioner Sonny Grey urged to be "cold" and "clinical"

The jury deciding the fate of two men accused of murdering pensioner Sonny Grey are being urged to be "cold", "clinical" and that the trial is "not a popularity contest". 

Sonny Grey died on October 31, 2011, at City Hospital in Nottingham. 

Two days earlier he had been attacked in his home in Westwick Gardens, Lincoln, and had a kettle of boiling water poured over him. 

Rocky Curtis, 25, of Newbridge Lane, Wisbech, and Robert Holmes, 24, of Redmoor Lane, Wisbech, are both accused of murdering the 70-year-old granddad. They were arrested with Curtis' now-deceased older brother Tom. 

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They deny murder, but yesterday the jury heard that they made their living by stealing cars and scrap metal from up and down the country and had been on as many as 500 raids in the two years before they were arrested. 

Both the prosecution and Curtis' defence team made their closing statements in the trial today. 

And Timothy Spencer QC, speaking on behalf of the defence team for Curtis, told the jury that before they made their verdict, they had to be absolutely sure that Curtis was in the house while Mr Grey was being attacked. 

He said: "You try this case, ladies and gentlemen, on evidence. 

"It's very easy to ratchet up the emotional level of this case but emotion clouds judgement. You are here to be cold and clinical and take a clean look at the evidence. 

"This is not a popularity contest, ladies and gentlemen. I'm not here to ask you to like Rocky Curtis or to ask you to praise him. Quite the opposite. 

"You know a good deal about him. You know what he's been convicted of and you know what he's owned up to. 

"The charge is murder, ladies and gentlemen. The charge is not observing the travellers' code for a long time. The charge is not being in Westwick Gardens. The charge is not being up to no good in this general area of Lincoln on October 29. The charge needs evidence and evidence we say is severely lacking."

Mr Spencer also argued that the three men caught on CCTV running away from Westwick Gardens on the night of the attack were not the same three men accused of murder.

He added: "Identification is at the heart of this case."

Meanwhile, prosecutor Peter Joyce QC repeated his allegation that the trio had been in a Volkswagen Touareg in the Westwick Gardens area in the hours before the attack on Mr Grey.

It is also alleged that the three men changed the licence plates on the Touareg before returning after dark. 

He said: "The prosecution has proved that it was the three together which went from Wisbech straight to Westwick Gardens. That it was the three together that cased Westwick Gardens. That it was the three together that changed the plates. 

"That it was the three together that came from the direction of the Touareg. That it was the three together that went up to Sonny Grey's house. That it was the three together that did it and the three that ran away together and ran back to Wisbech."

The defence team on behalf of Robert Holmes will make their closing statements tomorrow. 

The trial continues.