A teenager told yesterday how a makeshift game of cricket ended with his father’s death when they were stoned by a gang of laughing children.

James Norton, 17, had been practising his bowling with his father, Ernest, 67, when they were approached and “trapped” by a group of youths. “We were just keeping ourselves to ourselves,” James, now 19, told the Old Bailey. “It just seemed they wanted to pick on someone.”

Ernest Norton collapsed and died of a heart attack after he was struck by a stone. Yesterday James described seeing his father lying unconscious and bleeding on the tennis court where they had been practising happily while waiting for James’s mother to return from a leisure centre.

James had been bowling at his father, who had been catching the ball behind the stumps, for about 20 minutes, when they noticed 15 to 20 children throwing stones at Erith leisure centre, Kent, he told the jury.

The court had been told how the group, allegedly including the defendants, aged between 10 and 13 at the time of the attack last February, had earlier been turned away from the centre for being “mouthy”.

James said: “We just carried on trying to ignore them and they moved on walking further down towards us along the path, and that’s when they started noticing us, I suppose. I carried on bowling and one of them shouted, ‘You’re the worst bowler ever’, and insults like that.”

He added: “They were saying things like ‘Get a haircut’ and, to my dad, ‘Go back to the old people’s home’, things like that. I was trying to just ignore them and hoped they’d move on.”

His father told the group to “p*** off”, he said, and some of the group started pelting them with missiles. “They basically just started to pick up stones and bits of wood, whatever they could find, and started trying to lob them over the fence,” he said. “They were just laughing.”

He added: “Obviously I was worried about what could happen. It seemed like we were trapped in.” He described hearing a “thud” behind him after his father had been struck. “That’s when I turned round to see my dad collapsed. You could see blood coming from his left temple,” he said. “I noticed he was unconscious and quite heavily bleeding so I ran to get an ambulance.”

Christopher Malone, an off-duty policeman, rushed to help Mr Norton and tried to revive him. Mr Norton’s wife, Linda, arrived from the gym to find PC Malone trying to save his life. She grabbed her husband’s hand as the officer continued resuscitation and chest compressions. The group scattered after Mr Norton collapsed.

Elton Ross, a resident in a nearby street, told the court that he had heard one of the gang say: “I think I got him” as they fled. Andree Claisse, another neighbour, told the court that she had seen the youths throw sticks and stones. She said: “While the boys were throwing stones I heard one saying, ‘Oh, no’ and, as they said that, they started to run.

“There was a boy at the back who couldn’t seem to keep up with the others and I heard him say, ‘He’s dead, he’s dead’, and appeared to be crying. He was quite upset.”

Five boys, now aged between 12 and 14, deny manslaughter and violent disorder. The trial continues.

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