Defendant's 999 call after allegedly leaving care worker with life-changing brain injuries

• Listen to a recording of Harry Furlong calling police, the day after Alan Willson was assaulted.

The jury in the trial of a man accused of beating a care worker almost to death has been played a recording of one of the defendants calling 999 to hand himself in.

Alan Willson suffered life-changing brain injuries when he was attacked in Longcroft Park in Worthing on Easter Sunday last year, after confronting three boys over a bullying incident.

The court heard Mr Willson had confronted them after they allegedly pushed over a younger boy in a row about a game of frisbee.

He was found soon after, bleeding heavily. The court heard he spent almost three months in hospital, with his injuries so severe, he will never speak again.

Harry Furlong, 18, called emergency services the day after the attack. Asked by the call handler if he carried out the attack, the teenager said: “Yeah. Allegedly.”

Furlong is one of three boys on trial at Lewes Crown Court in Hove. The other two boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were arrested within hours of the attack.

Harry Furlong rang Sussex Police from a phonebox in the town the next day.

He bowed his head and looked down at the floor as a recording of the call was played to the court.

The jury hard he said: “Hello, I’m handing myself in for the incident that happened last night.”

When the call handler asked him what happened, he said: “I can’t really remember to be honest.

“A guy got airlifted to hospital.

“I’m trying to say that I know what happened.”

The call handler asked him: “You carried out that attack?” Harry Furlong can be heard on the tape replying: “Yeah. Allegedly.”

The jury have also been shown footage from train station CCTV.

Gemma White for the Crown told the court the video shows the three boys re-enacting their attack on Mr Willson. Earlier, the court heard a young girl on the platform said the boys thought they may have killed Mr Willson.

Miss White said: “She described how the boys were shouting and said she remembered them ‘talking about how they had just gotten into a fight, and they were shouting about it, and I think I remember them, oh at the time I thought they were joking about how they thought they had almost killed somebody’.

“One of the boys showed her his fists were scuffed and was ‘bragging about how he got into a fight’,” Miss White said.

Harry Furlong and two other boys aged 14 and 15 deny grievous bodily harm with intent.

The trial at Lewes Crown Court in Hove continues.