Wood Farm ‘murder’ victim Phil Breach’s sons described how their father had clashed with the ‘off his t*ts’ killer now accused of beating him to death in a public park.
Mr Breach, 59, was said to have ‘gripped’ murder accused Liam Jones in his flat in Bonar Road some six to seven hours before the older man was found badly beaten near Foresters Tower at 6.15am on November 30 last year.
Jurors have been told Jones has a previous conviction for murder.
In a summary of his witness interviews that were read to Oxford Crown Court on Thursday afternoon (June 22), the complainant’s son Tyler said he had invited Jones up to the flat he shared with his dad after seeing Jones' leg poking from out a bin shed outside the apartment block late on November 29.
Tyler, who was with his girlfriend Molly, described Jones as moving strangely, noting that the 44-year-old convicted killer ‘must have been off his nuts, off his absolute t*ts’.
READ MORE: Victim's shouts recorded on CCTV
Returning to the flat, they woke up dad Phil Breach. “Jonesy said ‘it’s only me, Phil, dropping the chocolate off. Don’t worry.’ That’s what I think he said,” the son told police.
Liam Jones was seen in one of these bin stores Picture: Oxford Mail (Image: Oxford Mail)
He wondered if his father had taken it the wrong way, as Jones was ‘off his nut’. He reassured his dad: “I said don’t worry, Jonesy’s just bringing us chocolate round.”
Mr Breach was said to have shouted at Jones to get out of the flat.
“My dad probably ended up gripping Jonesy first, because that’s just my dad. I think I saw my dad holding Jonesy in the hallway,” he said.
Tyler told the police that he had stepped in when he saw Jones ‘holding’ his father. “I said: ‘Get the f*** off my dad. Get your hands off my dad, Jonesy. You touch my dad and I’m gonna hurt you.’”
He added: “Jonesy ran out of the flat. He was obviously scared because he knew I would have hurt him if he touched my dad. No one ever hurt my dad if me and Jordan were around. We wouldn’t let anyone do that to our dad.
“I’ve then said to Molly to go to Jonesy’s flat and get him as we all need to say sorry.”
He said he heard his father saying: “I don’t want that c*** in my flat.” Mr Breach was ‘always moody’ when he had just been woken up, he said. “He hated it.”
Tyler told the police: “I said to him he needed to say sorry. I didn’t really know what was going on.
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“I can’t remember if Molly contacted me when she was away. She came straight back in with Jonesy.
“She whispered that Jonesy was being a bit weird. Molly told Jonesy to come in and apologise to my dad and then Jonesy [came] in and I think was cool sort of thing.
“I can’t remember if my dad and Jonesy shook hands, because I went into the kitchen to put food on the side.
Jones had just stayed in the doorway when the apology was made, he thought.
“Dad and Jonesy have tried shaking on it. My dad’s said no and not agreed to it. Jonesy has come back; my dad is still obviously awake because they were going to say sorry to each other but my dad he’s not a sorry guy. He didn’t like say[ing] sorry,” Tyler Breach said.
Jones and Mr Breach lived in Bonar Road, Wood Farm Picture: Oxford Mail (Image: Oxford Mail)
The defendant then walked out the flat, Tyler said. As he left, Jones allegedly said: “No, no, cool. That’s it then. Alright then. I thought I had respect for you boys. That’s it, boys.”
Tyler said in his statement: “He was angry and stormed out the flat and I thought ‘cool, f*** you, because dad don’t apologise, Jonesy didn’t really apologise to dad’.”
He added: “If Jonesy had come round with a zoot [a cannabis spliff] for him he would have been fine. He’d just been woken up and he had no zoots. I used to leave my zoot end for him every morning so he’d wake up and be happy.”
Tyler said he had known Jones for around six months and was aware he was on a life licence for murder. The pair used to take drugs together.
READ MORE: Prosecution starts opening of case against Wood Farm murder accused
The son, echoing a statement of his brother Jordan, said Mr Breach and Jones were known to each other. Their father also knew Jones’ on-off girlfriend, who Tyler had witnessed kissing Mr Breach around a month or two before his death.
Both men described their father’s routine; walking to the newsagents in Atkyns Road every morning in order to buy a copy of the Sun newspaper and a couple of Aero chocolate bars.
Jones, formerly of Abingdon Road, Oxford, denies murder.
The trial continues.
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