00:00Harold had received some very, very significant injuries during the assault by Paul Topham,
00:04which ended up with Harold being taken into hospital. Sadly, Harold had injuries that
00:10couldn't be operated on and he was surrounded by his family that love him dearly and they were
00:15able to spend some time with him before he sadly passed away. Harold's account that he gave to us
00:21in the hospital bed was absolutely instrumental in convicting Paul Topham. It was a very,
00:26very powerful piece of evidence that were able to show the jury where Harold was able to recount
00:31exactly what had happened to him. I would describe Harold as a very strong, very active 94-year-old
00:37male. Showing the impact that the assault had had on him as an individual was a very, very powerful
00:42piece of evidence. Paul Topham tried to use an excuse of voluntary intoxication in that he'd taken lots
00:49of alcohol and illegal drugs prior to committing the offence against Harold. Obviously voluntary
00:55intoxication isn't the defence particularly in these circumstances and we were able to gather
01:00a lot of evidence to show that actually whilst he may have been slightly intoxicated it wasn't enough
01:05to stop him from doing what he did and that he was acting quite normally and rationally. CCTV evidence
01:11showed that Paul Topham was able to get himself from Birmingham all the way to Wolverhampton. He
01:17appeared to be a man on a mission on the CCTV gaining entry into the location where Harold lives
01:24and was able to commit a burglary against him where sadly he was disturbed by Harold. During
01:28being disturbed had the opportunity to remove himself from that premises on a number of occasions
01:34and chose not to and chose to assault Harold which sadly led to his death. Thankfully for us the jury
01:39saw through his lies. We have provided Harold's family with a lot of support. They've had a dedicated
01:45family liaison officer supporting them throughout the whole investigation and the trial process. Harold was a
01:50massive part of their life. They're clearly very very upset by what's gone on and the very callous way
01:56in which his life was ended. I'm hoping that the conviction brings some degree of closure to the
02:02family and can help them getting their lives back to some sense of normality after such a massive loss to them.
02:13Thank you so much for joining us.
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