Coach appears in court charged with Ashtead murder (From Your Local Guardian)

10:15pm Wednesday 9th April 2008

A 24-year-old Ashtead football coach has appeared in court charged with the murder of Matthew Demko.

Michael Jordan appeared before Redhill Magistrates' Court charged with the 25-year-old Epsom man's murder this morning.

He was remanded in custody and is due to appear at the Old Bailey for a plea and case management hearing in July.

Police found Mr Demko in a garage in Links Road at about 6pm on Friday.

He was declared dead by ambulance crews half an hour later.

A postmortem examination showed he died from a blunt force injury to the head.

Mr Demko, the oldest of three children, was described as a keen rugby player in a statement.

He had won a sports scholarship to Pangbourne College and played for Sutton and Epsom under 16s rugby team.

In the statement his family said: "He started with the company cutting grass and worked his way up.

"Despite working long hours he loved his job.

"He was often teased because part of his training involved flower arranging which conflicted with his rugby image.

"Although he was a big bloke physically he was always very warm and lived life to the full.

"He was always up-beat and if he had been out in the recent snowfall he would have found the biggest hill to slide down."

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