Ex-football opponent of dead man casts doubt on jockey’s ability to have strangled him

A local man who played football against Gary Walton has claimed that most residents of the village of Coundon have no knowledge that his death was the result of him being strangled.

The murder of Gary Walton, a popular local man in the quiet town of Coundon in County Durham in July 2000 was greeted with shock and anger. Walton was a well-known character having been on the professional books of one of the north-east largest clubs, Newcastle United.

Even today his popularity is undiminished and can be gauged by the fact that on the anniversary of his death there are numerous messages of remembrance in local papers and on notice boards in pubs and clubs around the small town which lies approximately 10 miles north-west of Darlington and 6 miles along the A689 from the Prime Minister, Tony Blair’s constituency in Sedgefield.

Following Walton’s death Christy McGrath, a 24 year old jump jockey from Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary in Ireland, who was working for a local stables was arrested and charged with his murder. He later pleaded guilty and was sent to prison for 16 years.

McGrath does not dispute having a fight with Walton, but claims it was after he himself was attacked and racially abused. He accuses the dead man of using a brick during the attack. McGrath did not know Walton.

It is the use of this brick that would appear to be the cause of considerable confusion locally as to how Walton died, as a local man who knew the deceased and played football against him has confirmed.

“As I understood it Hoss [Walton’s nickname] was killed when he was hit with a brick to the back of the head” said the man who wishes to remain anonymous.

Asked as to why he believed this to be the case he said “it’s what I was told” and “everyone believes that.”

When told that McGrath had been convicted of strangling Walton the man said “Gary Walton was a big strong lad, he was a real handful as a football player” and “I would have thought it would have needed a big strong person to have strangled him”.

When told that McGrath was approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall, compared to Walton’s six foot two inches, the man said he “found it very difficult, virtually impossible to believe” he could have been strangled by someone so “much smaller”.

Even Walton’s nickname tells you a little about the man. It is a reference to the Eric Haas “Hoss” Cartwright character from the cult 1970’s series ‘Bonanza.’ Hoss was a man of contrasts; he was big, strong and a formidable opponent. Yet, he was also gentle, sweet and good-natured. He was the biggest and most physically powerful of the Cartwright family.

McGrath is claiming that he had no idea that Walton had died of strangulation until after his lawyer had put pressure on him to change his plea from not guilty to guilty. Walton was strangled with such force that his neck vertebrae were broken.

“The people of Coundon are a tightly knit community, in recent months the announcement that Black and Decker are closing their factory in Spennymoor will hit a number of families very hard” said the man. Between three and four thousand people live in Coundon.

“As far as people are concerned they got the right person, but then again most of them didn’t know he was strangled, that puts a very different light on things”.

McGrath’s family and a burgeoning list of supporters, including 44 MPs, some of whom are based in the north-east, have called for an immediate referral of his case to the Court of Appeal.

Richard Guest, the 2001 Grand National winning jockey has said “until my dying day, I will not believe that Christy is responsible for this man’s [Walton] death” whilst Billy Power, one of the Birmingham six has said of McGrath that “his demeanour and behaviour throughout has been those of an innocent man”.

The acting chair of the Justice for Christy McGrath Campaign, Patrick Reynolds, is not surprised to hear that local people are unaware of the full circumstance of Walton’s death.
“The local media never explored this story.”

He claims that consequently “the full facts of the case have yet to emerge, the public and the town of Coundon haven’t been made aware of the full facts of everything that happened, mainly due to the fact that the case was never heard in court.”

However Reynolds is convinced that “eventually the facts are going to come out” as more and more people begin to take an interest in the case.