Lee McKnight murder: Man told boy he had killed before

A murder suspect threatened to kill someone like he had his alleged victim, a jury at Carlisle Crown Court heard.

Six people from Carlisle deny murdering Lee McKnight, 26, whose body was found in the River Caldew in the city.

A schoolboy told the court he had seen one of the six - Arron Graham, 26 - several days after Mr McKnight's death.

Mr Graham told the boy to tell a man he was "gonna chop his head off with a machete and chuck him in the river like what I done to Lee McKnight", he said.

"That's what he said and it wasn't very pleasant," the boy told the court.

He told jurors he had been swimming with friends in a different river and had recognised Mr Graham, whom he knew as Azza, and another of the men on trial, Jamie Lee Roberts.

He went home, told his father what had happened and the police were alerted.

During cross-examination, defence barrister Fraser Livesey asked the boy: "Did Azza really say 'like I done with Lee McKnight'?"

The boy replied: "Yes, he did."

The boy also said he remembered overhearing Mr Roberts say: "My dad got sent down for 'M' and I got away with it".

Asked whether he might have said "them", not "M", the boy said: "No".

But he did agree that he had heard Mr Roberts say to someone on the phone that he had "nothing to do with Lee".

A pathologist has concluded Mr McKnight was subjected to a "prolonged" and "very, very severe" beating before being moved to the river where he was found by a farmer on 24 July last year.

Arron Graham, of Blackwell Road; Jamie Lee Roberts, 18, of Grey Street; and Jamie Davison, 26, of Beverley Rise, all deny murder.

Mr Roberts' 51-year-old father Paul Roberts, of Grey Street, and mother and daughter Coral Edgar, 26, and Carol Edgar, 48, both of Charles Street, also deny murder.

The trial continues.

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