geezer with a stick

Accused ‘tried to bite officer’
28 July 2004 07:00
A man accused of murder tried to bite a police officer when he was arrested, a court heard yesterday.Thomas Cusack, 40, of Magdalen Street, Norwich, denies murdering Danny McGhee at an address in Magpie Road last November.Mr McGhee, 25, of William White Place, died soon after being stabbed in the neck.Yesterday the court heard police officers had to restrain Cusack as he was arrested.As he was taken to Dereham police station to be questioned he was spitting at the vehicle's window and trying to bite an officer.Norwich Crown Court was told Cusack had spent the day drinking before going to Magpie Road to try to persuade his girlfriend to come back to his house. She did not come with him due to other people in the house.In a police interview, Cusack said Mr McGhee said he wanted a fight and had a black stick lying on the floor.Cusack claims he tried to leave the house through the back door so to diffuse the situation. But the back door was locked and he could not get out so he took a knife from the kitchen.He said he was "angry, worried and frightened" because he had been stabbed himself a few weeks previously and was wary.Asked to describe what happened, Cusack said he did not mean to kill Mr McGhee."Some geezer tried to whack me with a stick so I stuck a knife in him."He later said: "I can't remember that much in general – I was drunk out of my head."Pathologist Dr Michael Heath said injuries received to Cusack's arm were not consistent with being hit by a stick in an attack but more in line with Cusack falling against a rough object.The case continues