A RESIDENT living on the Carlisle street where Lee McKnight was allegedly beaten “to the point of death” told a jury that it was a “horrible” place to live.

The man made the comment as he and his partner testified in the Carlisle Crown Court murder trial in which six people are on trial accused of murdering 26-year-old Mr McKnight in the early hours of July 24 last year.

A woman who lived in the Charles Street, opposite where two of the accused live – Coral Edgar, 26, and her mother Carol, 47 – recalled being woken in the early hours of July 24 by screaming. The scream was “angry, scared, defensive, painful,” she said.

Her boyfriend also remembered being woken by her early on July 24 because she told him of the screaming. He said the area was “pretty rough,” with frequent disturbances.

“Any activity after 10pm was normally pretty loud,” he said. Summing up the street, he added: “It was horrible.”

The trial also heard video-recorded evidence from a schoolboy, who told the court one of the six accused told him: “I’m going to chop [your brother’s] head off with a machete and chuck him in the river – like I did with Lee McKnight.”

The threat was allegedly made by 25-year-old Arron Graham during an encounter next to the River Eden in Armathwaite, a jury heard. The boy said he saw “Azzer” Graham and Jamie Lee Roberts camping by the River Eden at Armathwaite on July 31 last year, a week after Mr McKnight died.

The body said he also overhead Jamie Lee Roberts making a phone call. Fraser Livesey, for Roberts, asked the boy: “Did you see Jamie Lee Roberts tell whoever he was speaking to on the telephone, say to that person, ‘I have’ – in other words Jamie Lee Roberts – ‘got nothing to do with Lee?’”

The boy answered: “He did say that, yes.”

All six defendants deny murder. They are Jamie Davison, 26, of Beverley Rise, Harraby; Arron Graham, 26, of Blackwell Road, Currock; Jamie Lee Roberts, 18, of Grey Street; Coral Edgar, 26, of Charles Street; her mother Carol Edgar, 47, also of Charles Street; and Jamie Lee Roberts’ father Paul Roberts, 51, also of Grey Street.

The jury also heard from Home Office pathologist Dr Brian Rogers, who diagnosed the cause of Mr McKnight’s death as drowning, but he was already unconscious – though still breathing – when put into the water.

The trial continues.