THE youngest defendant accused of murdering Carlisle man Lee McKnight told an ex-girlfriend that “just one person got out of hand” and they were a “real psychopath,” a jury heard.

That evidence came this week from a former girlfriend of 18-year-old Jamie Lee Roberts in a statement she gave to police after Mr McKnight was found dead.

The 26-year-old’s body was found “dumped” in the River Caldew near Cummersdale in the early hours of July 24 last year, the city’s crown court heard. After being attacked, he was taken to the river - badly injured but still alive - and thrown into the river.

Six people - including Jamie Lee Roberts - deny murder.

In evidence this week, a former girlfriend of the teenager told the court she had received a call from the teenager while he was camping in Armathwaite a week after Mr McKnight died. Roberts was crying, and told her: “Just one person got out of hand and they’re a real psychopath.”

Asked in court who she thought the “psychopath” was she replied: “Jamie Davison.”

Earlier in the case, the prosecution called witnesses who described how Mr McKnight was in trouble over a drugs debt which he owed to 26-year-old Davison.

The prosecution say that Mr McKnight was attacked by Davison and two men he recruited as “muscle”, Jamie Lee Roberts, of Grey Street, Carlisle, and Arron Graham, 26, of Blackwell Road, Currock.

Coral Edgar is accused of “luring” Mr McKnight to her Charles Street home before he was attacked, while her mum Carol Edgar, 47, and Paul Roberts, 51, the father of Jamie Lee Roberts, also of Grey Street, are accused of helping. Key evidence this week included:

* Claims that Mr McKnight was being chased because of his drugs debt. One of his “close friends” said he was a user of cocaine and cannabis and had “racked up” a drugs debt to Davison.

The man recalled Davison coming to look for Mr McKnight, on one occasion with two armed men, one carrying a baseball bat and the other a “large spanner.”

The witness recalled one conversation with Mr McKnight about the Davison debt, saying: “He’d just given him £2,000 but still owed him more.” Lee was due to meet Davison the next week to hand over more but said he would struggle to get it.

The witness added: “Once they’d left, I rang Lee and told him. Lee said not to worry. He’d ring them and sort it.”

* Another witness told of visiting the Edgars in Charles Street in the hours after Mr McKnight died, and seeing Carol Edgar cleaning away “spots of blood”. Raymond Light said that during the visit he saw Jamie Davison asleep on a couch.

Asked if he thought it unusual that Carol Edgar was cleaning up blood, he said: “It’s because of the way we live. She was an IV heroin user; she used to inject and as dirty as it sounds blood used to get spilled.”

* Jamie Lee Roberts, the jury heard, told police his only role in what happened was to burn a bag of “bloodstained” clothing given to him on July 24 by Davison.

“Do you know what clothes were in there?” asked the police officer. Roberts replied: “Just minging clothes, which had blood on them.” The teenager said he did not go into the Charles Street house.

Explaining why he agreed to burn the clothes, the teenager said: “I’ve had to do it because I owe him [Jamie Davison] money and I can’t pay.”Asked what happened to the training shoes he was wearing on the day that Mr McKnight died, he said he threw them into the river at Armathwaite while camping there with Arron Graham a week after Mr McKnight died. He did this, he said, because he had damaged one shoe when kicking a burning log in the camp fire.

* In her first interview, conducted the day after Lee McKnight was found, Coral Edgar told police officers: “I’ve got nothing to say... There’s nothing I can remember. I have severe mental health issues.”

She said she had multiple mental health issues. Asked if there was anything she wanted to say, she told police: “Just that I’m not responsible for his death or moving his body. He did come to my property.

“He was attacked by Jamie in my house. That’s all I’m willing to say. I don’t know how he left the property. I just know I’m not responsible for the attack.” She said ‘Jamie’ was in the property and punched Lee at the front door.

“I just covered my ears and shut my eyes.” She said she asked Lee McKnight to visit her because she wanted “weed”, she said.

After Lee was hit near the front door, she “moved out of the way,” she said. Coral Edgar said she felt “scared and shocked.”

* Carol Edgar told police she recognised the riding crop found near Mr McKnight’s body as one of hers, saying she had bought it in a sex shop but she had it for use with the horse that she owned.

On the day of his death, she had taken cocaine and heroin and came home and went to sleep on a settee in the living room. She denied allowing anybody to use her Nissan pickup.

* Paul Roberts, in a prepared statement, said he was not involved in the murder of Lee McKnight. He said he was contacted early on July 24 and asked to take clothes to Charles Street. Once there, he was given a pair of trainers and told to burn them, which he did, he said.

Murder is denied by Coral and Carol Edgar; by Jamie Davison, of Beverley Rise, Harraby; by Arron Graham, 26, of Blackwell Road; Jamie Lee Roberts, of Grey Street; by his father Paul Roberts, also of Grey Street.

The trial continues.