On the evening of 15thDecember 2001, Simon Hall headed to The Old Rep public house, arriving at about 8pm, where he met his friend Gareth Hampson. After a couple of drinks the pair decided to head to The Woolpack public house on the edge of the town centre where a karaoke event was being held. Simon was a personal friend of the landlord at that time, Mr Scott Doughty.
Simon drove with Gareth to The Woolpack, parking his car in the secure car park at the rear. As an incentive not to drink drive, Simon asked for his keys to be put behind the bar where he’d collect them (and his car) at a later date.
At approximately 10.30pm after a few drinks and a go on the karaoke machine, Simon and Gareth headed back to the town centre on foot in order to catch last orders at The Old Rep. When they arrived a party had been in full swing. Jamie Barker, the then assistant manager, was celebrating his 21st Birthday and had stripped off on the bar. The mood was upbeat so a large contingent of the bar staff decided to head to liquid nightclub where a reciprocal agreement meant that Old Rep staff could get into the club free of charge.
At about 3am on Sunday 16thDecember, Simon and Jamie started to head back to The Old Rep for a lock in with Keith Zukowski the resident DJ and Glenn Jarrett, the manager.
On the way they stopped for a kebab. Gareth Hampson had gone home by this time.
At about 4am they left The Old Rep, confirmed by Glenn Jarrett’s statement. Simon and Jamie then went for a wander around the town in order to sober up. After a while, Simon decided to retrieve his car, feeling he’d sufficiently sobered up, Jamie Barker accepted a lift from Simon so they walked up to the Woolpack public house to wake him up, they threw pebbles at the bedroom window of Scott Doughty, until the irate landlord appeared at the door and gave Simon “a right mouthful for waking him and his mother up at that hour.” Scott was to tell the court it was somewhere between 5 and 6am.
Angela Barker, the mother of Jamie Barker, recalled she was “woken at 5.30am by a throaty exhaust.” Jamie was being dropped off. At the time, Simon’s car had developed problems, the noisy exhaust being one of them. When questioned by the police for the first time, Jamie gave a statement affirming that he thought the time he was dropped off was between 5.45am and 6am. This apparent gap between the times given by Jamie and his mother is an important factor to bear in mind. In court the prosecution would try to suggest that Jamie’s recollection could be distorted by the amount of alcohol he had consumed.
Simon then proceeded to drive himself home to his parents’ house in Capel St Mary. His mother, Lynne Hall, was already up having been unwell for most of the night, and recalled that the time was about 6.15am. After some admonishment about the time, a cup of tea and a chat, Simon then went to bed for a short while as he was due to be at a family gathering for the rest of the day.
Lynne Hall later told the court that “there was nothing unusual about his demeanour, he was a bit tired, but then he’d been out most of the night.”