Jury finds man not guilty of one-punch Conan Anderson death charge

Following a week-long trial held at Belfast Crown Court, a jury delivered a ‘not guilty’ verdict against Lawrence Dowie after deliberating the case for over four hours.

The family of Short Strand man Conan Anderson - who sustained a fatal head wound during an early morning altercation with Mr Dowie in the Arthur’s Lane area of Belfast last February - left the court as soon as the majority 10 to 2 ‘not guilty’ verdict on a charge of manslaughter was announced.

Mr Dowie, whose address cannot be published due to a reporting restriction, always maintained he acted in self defence and insisted he struck Mr Anderson once after the football coach headbutted him and threw two punches which did not connect.

The left-handed punch to Mr Anderson’s jaw resulted in him falling back and hitting his head off the pavement, which caused a catastrophic head injury.

Mr Dowie, who gave evidence during the trial, appeared in court on crutches following a motorbike accident.

After Judge Gordon Kerr QC was informed that there was nothing pending against the 28-year-old, he told the clearly relieved chef he was free to leave the dock.

During the trial, Mr Dowie – who had never met Mr Anderson before that fateful night – attended an after-party in the storeroom of AM:PM, and was one of a group of revellers standing on the street when they left the premises at around 5.30am.

As he gave evidence from the witness box, Mr Dowie said there was a bit of “banter” and “slagging” between him and the deceased, and claimed Mr Anderson came at him first.

When asking about this slagging and banter during the trial, Mr Dowie told the jury: “Conan was calling me Dumbledore because I was doing magic tricks and I was calling him Gandalf.”

“It was all just a bit of innocent slagging. After I said to him ‘aye, no sweat Gandalf’ he came over from the footpath to where I was in the middle of the road.

“He came straight over with his hands down by his side, fists clenched.

“There wasn’t any time to think. I sort of froze.

“He put his head into mine... his head connected with the bridge of my nose.”

Claiming the entire incident lasted “around 20 seconds at the most”, Mr Dowie continued: “Everything happened so quickly. He was coming forward to me with punches. He only swung two punches, I believe both punches were with his left hand.”

And when asked how he responded, Mr Dowie said: “I swung one back. I didn’t have time to think. I just reacted.

“It was a panic swing to get him away from me. I believe it connected with his chin.”

He was then asked what happened after he felt the punch connect, with Mr Dowie saying Mr Anderson fell to the ground.

He then helped to get Mr Anderson off the ground and rejected suggestions he set out to harm the other man.

Saying “I didn’t want to fight in the first place”, Mr Dowie described what happened as a “terrible tragedy”.

The jury was shown CCTV footage which captured Mr Anderson making his way home to Short Strand following the punch.

Clearly unsteady on his feet at times, Mr Anderson was spoken to by both a paramedic and police, and rejected medical assistance.

He slept for a few hours after returning home, but his erratic behaviour on the afternoon and evening of Monday, February 6, caused so much concern to his family that an ambulance was called.

Despite medical intervention, Mr Anderson passed away in intensive care on February 18 last year from severe head injuries including a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain.