STATEMENT OF MRX

1. I make this statement to confirm two matters in particular.
2. First I will give evidence about Lee Balkwell’s normal habits concerning wearing his boots and trainers whilst working and going to and from work.
3. Second, I will give evidence about a telephone call I had from a friend of mine, whom I will call Mr A but am unwilling to name because both of us are in fear of the original source of the information, on the Sunday before the inquest on Lee Balkwell was due to start in October. This telephone call was received by me on Sunday 30 September 2007.
4. I was friends with Lee Balkwell
5. I would often socialize with Lee. I sometimes accompanied him to and from his place of work or took a lift in his pick-up truck as he was on his way to work or back from work.
6. Always, when travelling with Lee in his pick-up truck, I would find it difficult to place my feet in the passenger well beneath the passenger seat because Lee’s work boots would be there. I would sometimes work with him. I had to find a place for my feet alongside them. I travelled in Lee’s pick-up truck many times and it was always the same whenever he had finished working. His work boots would always be in the passenger well. Indeed he told me that he always changed into his trainers without fail on finishing work so as to keep himself and the drivers’ seat area clean from dirt and grease etc. and to keep the floor throttle free from grease.
7. I have been told by Lee’s father, Mr Leslie Balkwell, that on the night Lee was found apparently crushed in a cement mixer, he was found with his work boots on and his trainers placed on the passenger seat side of the driver’s cab of the mixer lorry. I also believe from what Mr Balkwell has told me that Essex Police were very reluctant to reveal this information. I do not know if this is the case, but Les did tell me that he wasn’t informed of this until 2007, when apparently  they were found in the evidence box by Detective Constable Ian Rayner. Until then, so Les informs me, Les had never seen any photographs of the trainers being found in the drivers’ cab. I do not know if this is the case. But I do know that Lee would never have walked with his trainers on to his place of work and then changed into his boots when he got there. He kept his trainers free from all dirt and grease. His trainers were always kept in his pick-up truck.
8. On Sunday 30 September I took a telephone call from a friend of mine whom I shall refer to in this statement as Mr A. It was clear from the moment that he began to talk to me that he was in great fear. He told me it was about the death of Lee Balkwell and he said he had information as to what really happened that night.
9. As soon as my friend began to talk, and I realised what it was about, and heard the frightened tone in his voice, I switched my telephone to ‘loudspeaker’ so that BLANK could also hear what was being said. She listened to practically the whole conversation. She can also be asked to testify as to what she heard.
10.  Mr A told me he had been speaking to a third party, who I will refer to in this statement as Mr X. Both Mr A and I are in fear of Mr X because of his conduct over many issues and his connections to serious ‘players’. Neither of us are prepared to name him though we both know exactly who he is. Mr A asked me to promise that I wouldn’t tell anybody about this conversation. But I felt I owed it to tell Leslie Balkwell about what may have happened to his son and I am willing to come to court to testify as to what I was told, as I want the inquest to know the truth about what happened to Lee.
11.  This is the information which Mr X had given to Mr A and which Mr A now gave to me and BLANK on that Sunday evening, 30 September:
12.   Mr X said that on the night of Thursday 18 July/Friday 19 July 2002, the day Lee Balkwell was found dead, Simon Bromley came to stay with him.
13.  There, Simon Bromley gave him an account of all that had happened that night.
14.  As I understand this matter is also revealed on a CCTV video taken at Baldwins Farm the evening before Lee Balkwell died (17 July), drugs were delivered that evening to Baldwins Farm by Glen Nicholls.
15.  The Bromleys - that is, David Bromley and his two sons Scott and Simon - tested the drug, which was cocaine- and snorted it during the evening. They became very high on the drugs.
16.  During the course of the evening, Lee Balkwell left to get a Chinese takeaway meal. I am told by Leslie Balkwell that this was about 11.30pm to 12.00 midnight.
17.  Whilst he was gone, Simon Bromley began talking about what an asset Lee Balkwell was to him. He praised his qualities of reliability, trustworthiness etc. Simon Bromley went on to say that he didn’t need his father or Scott any more in the concrete business. He could do it all with Lee who was much more of a help to him.
18.  This made David Bromley very angry.
19.  When Lee returned from the Chinese takeaway, he was shown into the pool room in Simon Bromley’s bungalow. There he was savagely attacked by David Bromley and his son Scott. Mr X specifically said that Lee was attacked from behind. Mr X told me that Simon Bromley had left the games room at this point, and that when he returned he found Lee injured or dead. Mr X said that when Simon returned to the pool room that ‘David and Scott Bromley had ‘done him’.
20.  I do not know if this had anything to do with it but Mr X had told Mr A that Lorraine Mitchinson’s brother [Dean Mitchinson - the name wasn’t actually mentioned] owed the Bromleys a large drug debt. Lorraine Mitchinson was the live-in partner of Lee at the time of Lee’s death and they had a young baby together. 
21.  David then ordered Simon to create a scene which looked like Lee had died in an accident. Simon was upset about what happened but was in fear of his father and/or loyalty to him and so complied with his instructions.
22.  He fled to Mr X’s home in distress. He was distraught about what happened as Lee and Simon were good friends and he trusted Lee.