A VIOLENT debt collector and a new mother have admitted killing a man, who died two years after he was found with serious head injuries on a disused garage site.

Stephen John Eastwood, 45, lay in a coma for more than four months following the attack at the former Bubbles car wash in Lawrence Street on March 27, 2012. 

He revived sufficiently to move from hospital to a rehabilitation centre, but died on May 9, 2014.

Andrew David Fowler, 43, who has a history of violent offences, and Amanda Jane Moran, 29, admitted his manslaughter on the day they were due to stand trial at Leeds Crown Court for his murder.

Mr Justice Andrew Edie warned them: "This was obviously an extremely serious criminal offence. It will be a custodial sentence of some length."

But he allowed Moran as an "exceptional act of mercy" to have bail so she could arrange for the care of her baby while she is in prison. The child was born while she was awaiting trial.
 

York Press: An officer at the disused garage in Lawrence Street

An officer at the scene in 2012

The High Court judge told the court that shortly after Mr Eastwood's death, Fowler had been involved in "another incident whereby some form of debt was to be enforced by threats of violence."

Prosecutors accepted a plea of guilty to theft for that offence when the victim and another witness did not give evidence against him on a more serious charge in December 2014.

In 1998, the wife of a man who owed money did give evidence against Fowler at York Crown Court and he was convicted of kidnapping her and falsely imprisoning her. He also searched her to the skin without any concern for her modesty, the court heard.

Jailing Fowler for five years for those offences, Judge Jonathan Crabtree had said it looked as if Fowler had been debt collecting from the husband.

Mr Eastwood had been a long-term heroin addict and had previously lived in Cornlands Road and Gale Lane, both in Acomb.

Justice Edie adjourned sentence against Moran and Fowler while probation officers prepare reports on how dangerous they are.

They pleaded guilty on the basis that they caused Mr Eastwood's death, but did not intend to kill him.

For Moran, Richard Wright QC said although she had had a hammer with her, there was no evidence the tool had been used in the attack. 

Fowler, 43, of Monkton Road, off Malton Road, York, and Moran, 29, formerly of York and now of St John's Terrace, Leeds. will be sentenced on September 25 at Leeds Crown Court. Fowler, who has been remanded in custody since his arrest, was returned to prison. 

Mr Eastwood was spotted lying on the ground at the former Bubbles car wash in Lawrence on the evening of March 27.

At the time, the site, which has since been replaced with student accommodation, was being used by homeless people.

As he fought for his life in hospital, two men and a 45-year-old woman were arrested at the scene and a police search of the area which later extended to bins, alleyways and the cemetery of St Denys' Church in Walmgate found a hammer.

The following day, a 25-year-old woman was arrested at Lady Peckett's Yard, off Fossgate, York.
Police had to issue a public appeal for help before they could trace Mr Eastwood's family. His parents had died and his brother lived in Spain.

In the August, Mr Eastwood woke from the coma he had been in since the attack and was moved to a rehabilitation centre but police warned he may never fully recover. 

Fowler and Moran were charged with his murder last September.