THE wife of the man accused of killing ex-footballer Daniel Pitham and wrapping his body in a roll of carpet has been convicted of perverting the course of justice – but a Coventry man has been cleared.
Toni Allison was on trial at Warwick Crown Court alongside her husband John Allison, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 33-year-old Mr Pitham in May last year.
John Allison (34) at whose Bulkington Road, Bedworth, home Mr Pitham’s body was found two days later, says the fatal injuries were caused accidentally, the jury has heard.
After deliberating for 12 hours and 39 minutes over the course of three days, the jury foreman said they had not yet reached a verdict on the murder charge.
But Judge Sylvia de Bertodano was told they had verdicts on Toni Allison and two men, Bradley Gane and Lee Williams.
And Toni Allison (34) of Abbey Street, Nuneaton, was found guilty of two charges of perverting the course of justice, which she had denied.
Williams (28) of Beechwood Road, Bedworth, was found not guilty of two charges of perverting the course of justice which he had denied, and Gane (39) of Braytoft Close, Coventry, was cleared of one charge.
The jury also had a verdict on a further charge faced by Gane of assisting an offender, but that cannot be taken until they have a verdict on John Allison – and the case was adjourned for them to continue their deliberations today (Monday, February 17).
During the trial prosecutor Kevin Hegarty QC said that on May 6 the police went to 44 Bulkington Road because of a report of a missing person, and forced entry.
“There was no-one at home, but they set about searching the house and opened the door to the under-stairs cupboard – and there they saw the missing man, Daniel Pitham.
“He was dead. He was lying face-down in the cupboard, wrapped in a piece of carpet which had been tied up with a length of washing line.”
One wound had penetrated his chest by 8.5cm and fatally damaged his heart, causing significant bleeding, and other wounds included one to his abdomen which had penetrated his liver.
Mr Hegarty said it was ‘more likely than not’ that he died in the living room and was then wrapped in a piece of carpet cut from the floor carpet and put in the cupboard.
“Putting him in the cupboard was a temporary measure. The purpose of wrapping him in carpet, we say, is they intended to remove his body from the house disguised as a roll of carpet.”
It is alleged Allison had attacked Mr Pitham with a large hunting knife after Mr Pitham had spat on the floor in the house.
But Allison has said it was Mr Pitham, who had lost his left arm in a motorcycle accident, who grabbed the knife and lashed out with it as he was trying to get him out of the house.
Allison said he grabbed him with both hands ‘because I feared he would cut me again,’ and that the fatal injuries were caused accidentally during the tussle between them.
He and another man who was in the house, Scott Warner (36) of Missing Oak Close, Bedworth, who has been cleared of the murder on the directions of the judge, have admitted conspiring to pervert the course of justice following Mr Pitham’s death.
And of Toni Allison’s role, Mr Hegarty said: “She told John Allison to get rid of his phone on the 6th of May, the day the police discovered Daniel Pitham’s body, and on a date on or before the 8th disposed of the sim card from her own phone.”
When she was spoken to by the police on May 7, ‘she was evasive when asked where her phone was,’ and said she had thrown the sim card out of a car window.
“She said it was because John Allison said he had done something ‘really bad,’ but she maintained she didn’t know where her own phone was. It was found in a drawer under some towels, but there was no sim card in it.”
But analysis of the phone disclosed messages including one in which Allison told her: “I’ve done something really bad, baby. I’ve got to sort it before I end up in jail for years.’
He did not say what he had done, but that he would tell her when they met, and on May 6 she sent him a message telling him: “You need to get rid of your phone.”
Mr Hegarty said: “By then he’s told her more particularly what has happened, and she’s giving him advice.
Sentence on Toni Allison was adjourned until next month, and Judge de Bertodano agreed to order a pre-sentence report to be prepared on her and granted her bail.
But she warned: “She must be under no illusions that the likely outcome for a case like this is a custodial sentence.”
