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26
Jun
‘There’s already one person dead in Harrogate tonight, you don’t want to be next’
Warning: this article contains details some people may find upsetting.
A Harrogate murderer threatened a man over a cigarette in the early hours of September 29 – the same day his victim’s body was found.
The bound and gagged body of Paul Tillett, 56, was found by police on the floor of his Strawberry Dale flat last September.
Philip Watson, 34, admits murdering Mr Tillett but his co-accused, Jason Johnson, 27, denies the same charge.
Written witness statements were read during the trial at Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday (June 24).
One witness, who was named in court, told North Yorkshire Police he was smoking outside Mykonos Restaurant on Mayfield Grove shortly before 2am on September 29 last year.
He saw two males walking towards him from the direction of the block of flats on Strawberry Dale, where Mr Tillett was killed.
The two men were walking on the opposite side of the road but crossed over towards the witness, who recognised one of the men to be Watson.
He had met Watson at Harrogate Homeless Project’s hostel, but the two were never friends.
Watson told the witness: “Give me some of that fag”.
The witness refused and said it was his last cigarette. He said he had worked hard to buy them, but Watson grew “agitated and aggressive”.
Watson then told the man:
There’s already one person dead in Harrogate tonight, you do not want to be next.
The witness believed Watson was under the influence of something at the time. Watson offered the man some “white powder” but he declined.
The witness said the “other guy did not talk” and he “did not know him at all”.
He started walking down Mayfield Grove, away from the town centre, when he heard Watson and the other male running towards him.
They went towards the same block of flats, he told police.
When the prosecution opened its case, Jamie Hill KC told the court Mr Tillett had been subjected to a “prolonged and persistent” attack, which had “elements of torture”.
Mr Hill said the prosecution believes Watson was the “main offender” and carried out most of the attack.
But he alleged Mr Johson encouraged Watson to commit murder.
Mr Johnson has admitted he was present during the fatal attack but said “at no point” did he come into physical contact with Mr Tillett and that he considered the victim a friend.
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