John Littlewood was bludgeoned to death with hammer while asleep in bed, court hears A POLICE officer has described the 'bloody' mess he discovered when he entered the bedroom of a man who had been battered to death with a hammer. John Littlewood suffered horrendous injuries when he was attacked in his own bed by a friend following a drunken dispute hours earlier. Marty Bates let himself into the Mr Littlewood's Blackhall Colliery home in the early hours of July 26, 2019, before launching the fatal and sustained attack on his prone victim, Teesside Crown Court had heard. Mr Littlewood...