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A man told a court there was "no red mist" and "no unfinished business" after running over and killing his girlfriend's brother on the night they the first met. Martin O'Donovan died, aged 47, after being struck by Stephen Bates' Ford Fiesta outside his sister's home on Stonyhurst Road in Woolton, during his mum's 70th birthday party. The two were initially said to have "hit it off straight away", but they later became involved in a drunken punch up when the 42-year-old defendant apparently insisted on driving home despite having drunk a cocktail of Jagerbombs, Stella Artois, Red Bull and vodka. It is then alleged Bates threatened he would "pay someone to come and get" the other man before returning to the scene in his car and "deliberately driving straight at him," reports the ECHO. Mr O'Donovan, who previously lived in Flintshire, was left trapped beneath the chassis as a result, with his uncles and cousins having worked together in order to lift the vehicle up and free their relative. However, he subsequently died in hospital after suffering serious head injuries during the incident. Bates, of Herondale Road in Mossley Hill, meanwhile went on to tell the officers who arrested him "I know what I've done, I've f***ed up". He is currently on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of murder. Appearing in the witness box wearing a white long sleeved shirt and a navy blue tie, Bates continued to give evidence to the jury for a second day yesterday, Tuesday. He previously told the court that he had returned to the scene in order to "sort out his relationship" with his partner, Mr O'Donovan's sister, Susanne Lewzey, but had crashed into a wall and his victim, who he claimed not to have seen, while attempting to park his car outside her house. In cross-examination, John Benson KC, prosecuting, put to him that he had seen the other man and deliberately driven his car at him, but Bates replied: "No, I didn't. I didn't. That's alls I can say, that I didn't see him." However, Mr Benson continued: "I am going to say that you did see him and deliberatively drove your car at him. He jumped off the wall to avoid being struck by your car. Your car collided with the wall at the place that he had been sitting. He went under your car, and you saw that. Then, you attempted to drive forwards, and you did drive forwards, at an angle." But Bates maintained "I didn't see him" and said that he had "corrected the car after he had hit the wall". He also denied having attempted to leave the scene in his vehicle before Mr Benson said: "You revved the car, but the car wasn't moving because Mr O'Donovan was underneath it." Bates replied: "He was under the car yeah, but I didn't try and drive away. I tried to move the car, but I didn't know Martin was in the car. I just would have moved the car to a place to park. I hit the wall and tried to correct my steering." Asked whether the "red mist had descended on him", Bates said "there was no red mist to descend". When Mr Benson put to him that he "had a fit of extreme anger that temporarily clouded his judgement", he added: "No, I didn't." The prosecution silk then said: "You had been in a relationship which had started 19, 20 months before April this year. It led to you staying over at her home from time to time. When you went to her home, would you ordinarily park your car in the place that you have been describing? Had you ever hit the wall before?" Bates stated that he had not crashed into the wall previously. When asked "why he thought he had hit it on this occasion", he said: "Because I was heavily intoxicated." Mr Benson however stated that he "wasn't paralytically drunk" as he had managed to drive from Mossley Hill to Woolton without incident, to which Bates responded: "I don't know what state I was in. It's a journey that I do all the time. It would have just been autopilot." At this, Mr Benson continued: "Drunk you might have been, but you were quite able to manoeuvre your car from Barndale Road to Stonyhurst without incident. And yet you have a collision, you say entirely accidentally, just as you come to number 40. And you hit a part of the wall where Martin O'Donovan had, a split second before, been sitting." Bates replied "I had an accident, yeah" but said he "was coming in to park the car". Asked whether he could "think of any reason why he did not see him", he added: "I don't know where he was, so I didn't see him. Why would I know where he was?" Mr Benson put to him that Mr O'Donovan was "there to be seen", but Bates said "well I didn't see him, I don't know". The KC went on to say: "Can I suggest that, when you went back to Stonyhurst Road, you would specifically have been on the lookout for Martin O'Donovan, wouldn't you? I suggest you went back specifically to see him." However, Bates replied "no, that's not true, I didn't, I went back to see Susanne". Mr Benson then said: "During the party, you and Martin had been getting on famously, hadn't you? And you said to the jury yesterday that you liked him. What did you like about Martin O'Donovan?" The defendant responded "he was just a good lad". Bates agreed with Mr Benson's suggestion that Mr O'Donovan was "pleasant, fun and nice", and, when asked "you didn't see a bad bone in his body, did you?", said: "No." Having been asked whether the subsequent "punch up" had started because he had "said something offensive to Susanne", he replied: "No, I don't know how the fight started. I don't recall being offensive to her." But Mr Benson continued: "Is that a truthful answer? Someone you had been having a perfectly civil, pleasant, happy time with, a bromance, as it was called. You have no idea why it became a punch up?" Bates said in response: "It was a drunken brawl. I don't know what the reason was, why we started fighting. I think he hit me first outside, from the camera footage." Mr Benson then referred to Bates calling Mr O'Donovan a "f***ing p***y" and telling Mr Lewzey that "she was a c*** and all of her family were c***s", adding: "Do you think for one moment, after that, that Susanne Lewzey was going to welcome you back into her arms and into her house? You would be deluded if you thought that, knowing Susanne as you did. "You weren't going back to patch it up with Susanne Lewzey, because you knew that it was over, didn't you? You went back for the unfinished business." But Bates denied that this was the case and said "there was no unfinished business". Referencing threats which he was then said to have made towards Mr O'Donovan as he was being driven home, Mr Benson continued: "You were obsessed, seething about what Martin O'Donovan had done to you, weren't you? He punched you in front of his family and all of the other guests. And you were going to have none of that, were you?" Bates replied "it was just a fight, it was just a fight". He went on to deny "feeling belittled" following the altercation before Mr Benson said: "You were in a state of heightened anger and excitement about what had happened, and you didn't let it lie. As soon as you managed to get the car keys, you got into the driver's seat and you sped off. "What's more, you continued at a fast pace to get to Stonyhurst Road, such that Susanne Lewzey couldn't believe the time it had taken you to come back to her home. Why were you going so quickly? What did you think you were going to be gaining? Susanne Lewzey wasn't going leave the house. What was the huge urgency?" Bates responded: "I just wanted to sort things out between me and Susanne. I wanted to sort things out with my girlfriend." But Mr Benson put to him: "You knew full well that the situation was beyond being sorted out. Did you say to Natalie [O'Donovan, who drove him home] at any stage before you left, 'tell Susanne I'm really sorry, can we speak tomorrow?'." Bates replied "I can't remember" and, when asked why he "didn't ring her himself", added "don't know". Mr Benson then said: "I suggest that, if you genuinely wanted to patch things up with Susanne, and that was the reason for you going to her home, you would have made a call, or, at the very least, sent her a WhatsApp. 'I'm so sorry, I really love you, it won't happen again'. "But you didn't, did you? That is because you had no intention of going back to speak to Susanne. You intended to go back to finish the business, didn't you?" But Bates said "no, I didn't". He then remained silent and shook his head when Mr Benson added: "And so your case is that this was a completely unintended collision with Martin O'Donovan, which has made you feel horrible because he has died." Referring to a 999 call which Bates made following the collision, during which he told the operator "we had an argument and then I've run him over", Mr Benson asked: "When you made that 999 call, the punch up with Martin O'Donovan, it was history, wasn't it? You've drawn a line under it. No interest any further. "Why did you think the operator would want to know you'd had an argument? What possible relevance could it be? In your mind, the two were connected. At the time, you were associating having run him over with the argument. "Because, if you're right, the argument had nothing whatsoever to do with it. You've moved on, you're not angry. You've had an accident. You could have said what happened, 'I was trying to park my car and I've accidentally run him over'. Why did you say, 'we've had an argument then I've run him over'?" Bates replied: "I don't know what I've said it. I was in shock. I don't know. I was in shock and drunk." Mr Benson then turned to Bates' comment to the arresting officer, that he had "done f***ing nothing wrong". Asked about why he had made this remark, he said: "I think, because it was an accident." Referencing further statements Bates made following his detention, Mr Benson added: "Then just breathalyse me, it doesn't matter. I know what I've done, and what I've done is wrong. I know. F***ing f***ed up, and that's it. I've drank alcohol, I'm over the limit. "You said, in relation to the breathalyser, 'do it at the station, I'm f***ed anyway, so just do it at the station'. Up to this point you haven't made one enquiry of anyone as to Martin O'Donovan's condition." Bates conceded "not that I'm aware, no". Mr Benson then continued: "You're in the back of the police van. 'I'm terrified what I've done, I know I'm going to prison, I'm f***ing s***ting myself, it's f***ing terrifying me, I've f***ed up'. "Then, at Belle Vale Police Station. F***ing ruined my life, haven't I? My life's f***ing ruined. My whole life is ruined. My life is ruined. What the f***, what the f***. My life is f***ing ruined'. "Stephen Bates, an obvious observation about that. You had ruined someone else's life, hadn't you? You were facing a criminal prosecution. Martin O'Donovan was dead. That's how ruined his life was, wasn't it?" Bates remained silent and nodded at this stage before Mr Benson continued: "I suggest that, really, although now, in the quiet and sober light of day, you realise what happened was horrible, at the time, you were thinking of yourself. Is that because you knew exactly what you had done to Martin O'Donovan? You deliberately drove a car at him to revenge the belittling you felt when he punched you in front of all the family." But Bates said "I didn't, no". Mr Benson then added: "The sad fact of the matter is that, after driving at Martin O'Donovan in a rage, when you saw him lying there, under the car, you then appreciated the enormity of what you had done. Didn't you?" Bates replied "no, I didn't see him" before Mr Benson said: "That's the whole point of red mist. People, when red mist descends, do things in the heat of the moment, only to regret it. That's what happened to you, isn't it?" At this, Bates shook his head and said "no". Mr Benson concluded his questioning by saying: "I am bound to suggest to you, Stephen Bates, that you murdered Martin O'Donovan, didn't you? Because, when you drove your car, in a rage, back to Stonyhurst, and when you saw him, you drove deliberately at him to get your own back." Bates replied "no I didn't, no". Similarly, when it was put to him that he "intended to cause really serious injury, at the very least", he said: "No, I didn't." Bates, who is represented by Andrew Haslam KC and Nicola Daley, denies the charge of murder, having pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter. The trial, before Judge Neil Flewitt KC, continues. You can sign up for all the latest court stories here Find crime figures for your area
