Clive Porter murder trial: Canal worker victim of 'unprovoked' attack

Former police officer Clive Porter died on a canal towpath near Aylesbury after being assaulted

A former police officer died as the result of "an utterly pointless, unprovoked assault", a court has heard.

Clive Porter, 63, died after he was found seriously injured on the Grand Union Canal, near Broughton, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, on 26 April last year.

He had been working for the Canal and River Trust when he was allegedly assaulted by Daniel Wisniewski, a jury at Reading Crown Court has been told.

Mr Wisniewski, 46, of Wharf Road, Birmingham, has denied murder.

The jury heard that Mr Porter, a boat licensing manager for the trust, had cycled along the canal path to issue an enforcement letter to the owner of a craft.

Mr Wisniewski, who was staying on another boat, spoke to Mr Porter, starting a row, according to prosecutor Alan Kent QC.

"That row quickly led to a physical altercation that led to his [Mr Porter's] death," said Mr Kent.

He added that Mr Wisniewski and his partner, with whom he shared a boat, had become frustrated with the state of the canal following flooding.

"He took his frustrations out on Mr Porter...It was an utterly pointless, unprovoked assault."

'This is murder'

Emergency crews were subsequently called and Mr Porter, who had previously served for 30 years as an officer with Hertfordshire Police, was found in a ditch, the jury heard.

Mr Kent said: "He was on his back, he was facing upwards, his head was just above the water level. The rest of his body from his chin downwards was submerged."

The court was told paramedics and doctors tried to resuscitate Mr Porter, but were unable to do so.

Mr Kent said the cause of death was unascertained but, he added: "This was a deliberate assault by someone intending to kill, or intending to cause serious harm. This is murder."

The trial continues.