Man guilty of murder - Great Yarmouth

A man has been convicted of murder after he killed a 59-year-old man in a row over drug-taking in a communal stairwell.

Martin Montgomery kicked Nigel Mazs in the head causing him to fall backwards onto concrete outside his killer’s home in Malakoff Close, Great Yarmouth, on 22 December 2023.

Mr Mazs died in hospital 13 days later on January 4.

Today, Friday 22 November, Martin Montgomery, aged 31, was found guilty of murder by a jury at Norwich Crown Court following a nine day trial.

He had denied murder but had previously admitted to manslaughter.

The jury took just one hour to come to a unanimous verdict.

He is due to be sentenced on Tuesday 26 November.

The jury heard Mr Mazs had been with friends in the stairwell when Montgomery took exception to their drug-taking.

Shouting at him to leave Montgomery kicked Mr Mazs in the face as he bent down to pick up something, causing him to fall backwards and hit his head.

Mr Mazs lost consciousness and was bleeding heavily from facial injuries but was able, with the help of his friends, to make it into town to the top of Regent Road where his condition worsened.

Emergency services were called just after midday, around an hour after the incident, and Mr Mazs was taken to the James Paget University Hospital in Gorleston.

There it was discovered he had suffered a brain haemorrhage and he was transferred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge by helicopter.

He was placed into an induced coma and never regained consciousness.

Later on the day of the attack at around 8.30pm Montgomery was arrested in a friend’s back garden in the process of trying to burn the clothes he was wearing at the time of the attack on a barbecue.

When officers came to arrest him his only response was "fair enough.”

Det Insp Alix Wright who led the investigation said: “Firstly, I would like to offer my sympathy to the family of Nigel after his life was so swiftly and brutally taken from him.

“This was an unprovoked assault and the way that Montgomery showed no concern for his victim, a man he did not know, and continued to taunt and threaten him even after he had suffered such a catastrophic injury shows he is a dangerous individual who should be off the streets.”