Man charged with murdering Chesterfield pensioner told former friend 'I've got in a bit of trouble and the police will be coming for me'

Daniel Walsh is currently being tried for the murder of Graham Snell before chopping up his remains the Marsden Street home they had both been living in at the time of the killing in June last year.

It is alleged that Walsh then disposed of the body in bins located at a flats complex where his brother lived, and isolated woodland surrounded by houses, at the trial at Derby Crown Court.Giving evidence on Friday, November 27, David King, who was Mr Snell’s next-door neighbour at the time he went missing, told the court that he had knocked on Mr Snell’s door on June 22 to tell him he was going on holiday, but Walsh had opened the door and said he was out shopping.When he returned from his trip, Mr King again knocked on Mr Snell’s door and Walsh this time said he was in hospital.But when Mr King contacted hospitals in Chesterfield and Sheffield, he was told that Mr Snell had not been admitted since 2017.

"Daniel opened the front door and said he had been working nights,” Mr King said. “He said Graham isn’t here, Graham is in hospital. I asked him which ward he was on and he said it was the Nightingale ward at Chesterfield Royal. I rang the hospital and asked to be put through, and I was told it is a ward for children. I rand admissions and said that nobody called Graham Snell had been admitted and suggested I ring the two hospitals in Sheffield.”

Neighbour Zoe Holmes described a voice shouting “Get out, get out, get out,” from either inside Mr Snell’s house or at the front of the property at about 11pm on June 19, and had not seen or heard from Mr Snell again after that point.

"I heard shouting,” she said. “It was raised men’s voices from either next door or outside; it was close by. One voice was shouting get out, get out multiple times and after that I never saw Graham again.”

Eventually they made a joint call to Derbyshire Police to raise their concerns and report the 71-year-old missing.

Another witness, named in court as David Spencer, said he hadn't heard from Walsh in over a year due to an argument, when Walsh called him out of the blue and asked him to go out for a drink.

He told the court that later he went into a pub for a drink after finishing work, when Walsh walked in.

“He sat down at the bar where I was and said he wanted to apologise and make amends,” he said. “I told him I didn’t want anything to do with him and he said he couldn’t remember what he had done wrong because he had been off his head at the time. He was saying that he had got himself into a bit of trouble and that they [the police] would be coming for him.

Walsh, 30, denies murder.

The trial continues.

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