Court hears of brutal attack by daughter’s boyfriend leading to death in 2019.

A man tragically passed away three years after a violent assault linked to a dispute over his grandson’s custody, a court has been told. John Davies, 56, was allegedly attacked by his daughter’s boyfriend, Daniel Benitez, in May 2016, and succumbed to the injuries in April 2019.

Benitez, 31, is currently facing a murder charge at the Old Bailey. Prosecutor Tom Little KC described the attack as “one-sided,” with Benitez, who was younger and stronger, inflicting severe injuries on Davies and damaging property in the home. When Davies’s ex-wife, Lynn Davies, returned to the house, she found her former husband gravely injured and was also attacked by Benitez, who allegedly made threats and stole belongings, including bank cards.

The court must determine whether the injuries inflicted in 2016 contributed to Mr. Davies’s death in 2019. The prosecution argues that Davies never fully recovered from the assault, and that Benitez’s actions were the direct cause of his eventual death. It is suggested that the motive behind the attack was the defendant’s anger over the decision to take his grandson into care, with the couple blaming Mr. Davies and his wife.

Benitez, who is from Wandsworth, south London, denies the charge of murder, and the trial continues at the Old Bailey.