Landlady 'killed customer with drink'

The pub where Mr Gates drank the lethal cocktail

A pub landlady and her husband killed a drunken customer by forcing him to drink a lethal cocktail of spirits during a bet, a court has been told.

Teresa Browning, 34, and her husband Kevin, 36, both of Portsmouth, are jointly accused of the manslaughter of Barry Gates.

A jury at Winchester Crown Court was told how 44-year-old Mr Gates collapsed and died after downing a pint glass filled with a mixture of whisky, gin, vodka, bacardi and brandy.

Barry Gates died at hospital

The defendants each deny a charge of manslaughter in what is thought to be the first case of its kind in the country.

Mrs Browning was licensee at the Kingston Tavern, Portsmouth, when Mr Gates died on 7 June last year.

Anthony Davis QC, prosecuting, told the jury how Mr Gates was already drunk when he arrived at the pub shortly after 1230 BST.

He said the couple talked with him about a bet to drink measures from each of the optics on the top shelf behind the bar.

'Mocked'

Mr Davis told the court how the defendants "egged, goaded and cajoled" Mr Gates into drinking three-quarters of a pint glass which had been filled with a mixture from the "house doubles".

"When he had finished, it wasn't long before having sat down on a bar stool, he fell off that bar stool with a loud thud as his head hit the floor," said Mr Davis.

Kevin and Teresa Browning leaving court

He told the court the defendants then "mocked" Mr Gates. They eventually called emergency services when it became apparent he was seriously unwell.

Mr Gates, a father-of-one from Kingston Road, Portsmouth, was rushed to the Queen Alexandra Hospital at Cosham but was certified dead within 30 minutes of arriving.

"It's the Crown's case that these two defendants owed to the drunken Barry Gates a duty of care, when so drunk he was incapable of controlling adequately, or at all, his thoughts and movements," said Mr Davis.

He said they breached that duty and behaved in a reckless and negligent manner.

The case continues.