A TEENAGER accused of beating a father almost to death after he stepped in to protect another bullied boy rang police to hand himself in.
Harry Furlong, 18, dialled 999 the day after Alan Willson was attacked in a park by three boys on Easter Sunday last year.
Asked by the call handler if he carried out the attack, the teenager said: “Yeah. Allegedly.”
Mr Willson, from Worthing, suffered life-changing brain injuries and the court heard he will never speak again.
Harry Furlong is one of three boys on trial at Hove Crown Court.
The other two boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were arrested within hours of the attack.
The jury has heard Mr Willson was attacked after confronting three boys over a bullying incident in Longcroft Park in Worthing.
Harry Furlong rang Sussex Police from a phone box in the town the next day.
He bowed his head and looked down at the floor as a recording of the call was played to the court.
The jury heard he said: “Hello, I’m handing myself in for the incident that happened last night.”
When the call handler asked him what happened, he said: “I can’t really remember to be honest.
“A guy got airlifted to hospital.
“I’m trying to say that I know what happened.”
The call handler asked him: “You carried out that attack?”
Harry Furlong can be heard on the tape replying: “Yeah. Allegedly.”
The jury has also been shown footage from railway station CCTV.
Gemma White, prosecuting, told the court the video showed the three boys re-enacting their attack on Mr Willson.
Earlier, the court heard a young girl on the platform said the boys thought they may have killed Mr Willson.
Miss White said: “She described how the boys were shouting and said she remembered them ‘talking about how they had just got into a fight, and they were shouting about it, and I think I remember them, oh at the time I thought they were joking about how they thought they had almost killed somebody’.
“One of the boys showed her his fists were scuffed and was ‘bragging about how he got into a fight’,” Miss White said.
Harry Furlong and the two other boys, aged 14 and 15, deny grievous bodily harm with intent.
The trial continues.
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