‘Boxer’ accused of manslaughter of ‘peacemaker’ after fight in town centre tells police: “I’m not a killer”

A boxer accused of killing a man who acted as a ‘peacemaker’ after a fight broke out in Bury town centre told police: “I’m not a killer.” Brook Marshall-Byrne, 20, denies the offence of manslaughter following the death of 35-year-old Piotr Ludwiczak.

Jurors previously heard that Mr Ludwiczak was on a night out with a friend in Bury town centre on July 8 last year when he went to ‘protect’ a young man allegedly being assaulted by Mr Marshall-Byrne. Prosecutors allege that Mr Marshall-Byrne punched Mr Ludwiczak with ‘tremendous force’, after which he fell backwards and hit his head on the road.

Manchester Crown Court heard that Mr Marshall-Byrne, who said he’d drunk ‘six or seven’ double vodka and cokes, later told police he’d been a ‘carded boxer’. Mr Ludwiczak, who was born in Poland and emigrated to the UK about a decade ago, suffered ‘catastrophic’ head injuries and died.

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“Sadly and ironically Piotr was killed in the circumstances that he was a peacemaker,” prosecutor Henry Blackshaw said. “He came to be punched in that way because he was seeking to intervene to protect a young man.”

Speaking to detectives in his police interview, Mr Marshall-Byrne said Mr Ludwiczak held him in a ‘bear hug’ after the first incident and said he ‘couldn’t breathe’.

“I wriggled out of it. He’s then running, can see him running around. I hit him, boom boom boom,” he said.

“My hand was down, I was defenceless. I was thinking ‘I’m f****d’. I had to get out quick.”

Mr Marshall-Byrne said he managed to get away from Mr Ludwiczak before he ‘hit him and ran’. He said he thought he was with the other group from the previous fight.

“I was