A MAN on trial for the murder of a 24-year-old at Reading Train Station is expected to say he was fearful he’d be attacked after ‘racial abuse’.

Kirkpatrick Virgo, of Whitby Road, Slough, admitted the manslaughter of Thomas Parker who died on platform eight just before midnight on July 30 last year.

The 42-year-old also pleaded guilty to the possession of an offensive weapon but pleaded not guilty to murder is currently on trial at Reading Crown Court.

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Prosecuting, Tahir Khan told the court yesterday (March 21) that Virgo hit Mr Parker on the back of the head with a metallic horseshoe after a previous altercation on the train with Mr Parker’s brother, Craig.

Mr Parker, his brother, and two friends had been travelling from watching an Arsenal football game when the defendant and two others got on the train at Slough with a boombox playing ‘loud music’.

It is the Crown’s case that Mr Parker’s brother, Craig, was frustrated by the loud music and an altercation took place.

They say when the train pulled into Reading that the defendant followed the group and struck Mr Parker on the back of the head due to being ‘upset about the previous argument’.

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However, Mr Khan told the jury that the defendant is expected to say throughout the course of the trial that he had removed the weapon from his back as he feared he would be attacked.

Mr Khan said: “The defendant said he removed the horseshow from his rucksack because he feared he was going to be attacked when he got off the train but he does accept that at no time was he acting in self-defence.

“He suggests that Thomas Parker racially abused him and spat at him.

“Of course, he must have understood that by doing what he did he was going to be cause really serious harm to Thomas Parker who was in no condition to defend himself because Thomas Parker was attacked from behind, the weapon struck the back of his head - this was murder, we say.”

When police arrived soon after and arrested Virgo, the Crown suggests he told officers that there had been an argument and someone had called him a ‘black c***’.

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Mr Parker was sadly pronounced dead at 12.40am on July 31. A pathology report noted that he had bruising on the left side of the back of his head from a ‘blunt impact’.

The trial continues.