Guide Post man Andrew Peart died eight days 'after road rage beating'

Andrew Peart died in hospital eight days after being attacked, a court heard

A man died in hospital eight days after being beaten following a road rage incident, a murder trial has heard.

Andrew Peart, 39, suffered a serious head injury when he was assaulted with a "bat" by Jake McIntyre in Guide Post, Northumberland, prosecutors told Newcastle Crown Court.

Mr McIntyre, 28 and from Stakeford, Ashington, denies murder.

Opening the trial, prosecutor David Lamb KC, said Mr McIntyre intended to hurt or seriously harm Mr Peart.

Mr Lamb said Mr Peart had left his partner's home on the evening of 22 August and was heading towards the Co-op store in Guide Post.

As he neared the shop, Mr Peart stepped into the road in front of a Mitsubishi Shogun being driven by Mr McIntyre, the court heard.

"That resulted in some words being exchanged", Mr Lamb said, adding: "It was a fairly minor episode and over quite quickly."

Jake McIntyre is on trial at Newcastle Crown Court

But after driving away, Mr McIntyre drove back round and assaulted Mr Peart with some form of weapon, Mr Lamb said.

A worker in the shop saw Mr McIntyre punching Mr Peart and knocking him to the ground before driving away, the court heard.

Mr Lamb said Mr Peart was able to get up and walk away, and rang someone to say he had been "struck by the lad in the car with a bat".

He also told his partner he had been hit with a "metal bar", Mr Lamb said.

'Unsurvivable brain injury'

About three hours later while at a friend's house, a large lump appeared on his head and Mr Peart's condition began to "deteriorate" with him "wobbling and rocking around", Mr Lamb said.

His friends called for an ambulance but were told it would take an hour to arrive, so two friends carried him outside to try and flag down a car.

A van stopped and took him to Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington, where a CT scan revealed a large haemorrhage in his head.

He was transferred to Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary where he underwent surgery for a fractured skull and blood clot squeezing his brain.

Despite medical treatment, Mr Peart died from an "unsurvivable traumatic brain injury" at about 12:30 BST on 30 August, the court heard.

Mr Lamb said: "The prosecution's case is [Mr McIntyre] deliberately struck Andrew Peart to the head and, as a result of the injury he inflicted on him, Andrew died.

"And at the time that Jake McIntyre hit him, he intended either to kill him or at the very least to do him serious bodily harm."

'Self defence'

The day after the attack, Mr McIntyre sent voice messages and videos to friends in which he said he hit Mr Peart on the leg with a metal wheel brace, "wrapped a pole" around his head and had "given some little crackhead street justice".

He also said he was "hiding" from police and using another car to avoid the Shogun being found, the court was told, with detectives not discovering the car until March.

The court heard he and his girlfriend went to the Lake District the day after the attack and Mr McIntyre was arrested at a hotel in Bowness-on-Windermere.

In interview, Mr McIntyre, of Stakeford Crescent, told police he was "six out of 10" angry after Mr Peart shouted at him and he felt "threatened".

He said there was a minor physical altercation in which he punched Mr Peart in "self defence".

Mr McIntyre said he went to the Lake District as his family had been threatened and he wanted to protect his girlfriend.

Pathologist Dr Sam Hoggard found a "faint probable tramline bruise" on Mr Peart's left thigh suggesting he had been struck with a heavy cylindrical object, and "such a weapon could also account for the fatal head injury sustained", Mr Lamb said.

The trial, which is expected to last up to two weeks, continues.