A TEENAGER boasted he “put to sleep” a father-of-two who died after he was knocked out with a punch, a court was told yesterday.

Spencer Freeman suffered a fractured skull and a haemorrhage when he was hit by Aaron Hayes outside The Grenadier pub, in Acklam, Middlesbrough.

The court was told that Mr Hayes, 19, of Topcliffe Road, Thornaby, Teesside, had been drinking for most of the day and had also taken cocaine before the attack, at about midnight on April 9.

He denies manslaughter and is on trial at Teesside Crown Court.

Yesterday, Andrew Sherwood, an offshore rigger who had been drinking in The Grenadier, said he had seen Mr Freeman and a younger man fighting drunkenly outside the pub.

Mr Sherwood, a friend of the victim, said Mr Freeman was caught with a punch under the jaw and fell backwards.

He said: “Someone shouted ‘that’s Spencer. He has been knocked out.’”

Mr Sherwood said the victim had blood coming from his nose.

He said: “The young lad who had hit him was rejoicing with his mates saying ‘I have knocked him out. Nice one. I have put him to sleep’.

“He was stood there shoulders all square.”

Mr Sherwood said the younger man said he had been acting in selfdefence and claimed he had been hit first.

He said Mr Freeman, a 42-year-old father of two “would do anything for anybody” and was not a fighter.

Earlier, pub manager Rachel Hamilton was repeatedly questioned over her assertion that she had heard Mr Hayes say “fight, fight”.

She said the words had been used when a disturbance broke out in the pub involving the victim’s sister-in-law, her sister, and another man and said they were not directed at Mr Freeman as he went to leave.

Mrs Hamilton said the pub had been extremely busy that day and there were still 20 or 30 people present shortly before midnight after last orders had been called.

Her mother, Carol Dickens, a former landlady at The Grenadier who was helping in the pub on the evening of the attack, said she had refused to serve one of Mr Hayes’ friends, believing the drink was intended for him.

The court heard how Mr Freeman, who was described as a stalwart of the pub’s darts team, had ushered two of the women involved in the disturbance outside and put his arm around one to calm her before he was later attacked outside.

PC Sean Parkin, who attended the scene, said Mr Hayes and a number of his friends were intoxicated and described them as hysterical and loud.

The trial continues.