'I saw it with my own eyes ... and it was very deliberate

VICTIM'S SISTER TELLS MURDER TRIAL OF EVENTS LEADING UP TO HIS KILLING

- By ADAM EVERETT

A WOMAN has told a court she witnessed her boyfriend “intentionally” aiming his car towards her brother with her own eyes.

Martin O'Donovan died aged 47 after being hit by Stephen Bates’ Ford Fiesta outside his sister's home on Stonyhurst Road in Woolton, after his mum’s 70th birthday celebrations in April.

While the two were initially said to have “hit it off straight away’, they later became embroiled in a drunken punch-up when the 42-year-old defendant apparently insisted on driving home despite having downed a cocktail of Jagerbombs, Stella Artois, Red Bull and vodka. He then allegedly issued a series of threats to kill Mr O’Donovan before returning to the scene in his car and “deliberately driving straight at him’

Mr O’Donovan was left trapped beneath the chassis as a result, with his uncles and cousins having worked together to lift the vehicle up and free him. However, he later died in hospital after suffering serious head injuries during the incident.

Bates, of Herondale Road in Mossley Hill, is currently on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of murder.

Mr O’Donovan’s sister and Bates’ then girlfriend, Susanne Lewzey, was called to give evidence yesterday. Addressing the court from behind a screen, she agreed under cross-examination from defence counsel Andrew Haslam KC that she “genuinely loved” her partner and that the “feeling was a reciprocal one”.

Ms Lewzey went on to recall there were “35 to 37” family members present during the party at her house and, when Mr Haslam put to her that she had told detectives following the incident that her brother and boyfriend had “struck up a bromance” after meeting for the first time during the party and “hit it off straight away’, Ms Lewzey replied: “At that point, they got on really well and were just chatting and happy.”