MURDER accused Coral Edgar has described the extent of the drug addictions that afflicted her and her mother Carol at the time when Carlisle man Lee McKnight died.

As she went into the third day of her evidence at the city's crown court, 26-year-old Coral - one of the six people accused of murdering Mr McKnight - was urged to give a detailed account of her mother's life.

The prosecution say 47-year-old Carol Edgar helped the three men responsible for severely beating Mr McKnight by lending them her Nissan pickup so he could be taken - badly injured but alive - to the river where he was found.

Coral allegedly "lured" Mr McKnight to her Charles Street home on July 24 last year so he could be attacked.

Toby Hedworth QC, for Carol Edgar, asked Coral Edgar: "Your mother hasn't been a very good example to you, has she?" Coral Edgar agreed. She confirmed that her mother had led a comfortable life until recently with her partner of seven years.

She had horses and the Nissan jeep, provided by partner's family.

But her mother's relationship ended amid concerns about her drug taking and Carol had to leave her home after returning from a stay with Coral and finding the locks changed.

"She spiralled downhill," said the QC. Carol agreed, saying her mum began taking even "harder drugs," including cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, Ketamine, Valium, and pregabalin, and possibly other drugs.

"But they were the ones I was aware of," she said.

Carol Edgar took drug "cocktails", injecting them; and that at times this left her "psychotic." Mr Hedworth said: "She was causing herself severe physical harm, wasn't she?" Coral replied: "Yes."

The QC said: "She was literally writhing flesh from her hips." Coral said: "She'd pull full veins from her legs, saying they were snakes."

At one stage, agreed Coral, her mother was admitted to hospital because she was delirious with an infection and unable to walk. Mr Hedworth said: "It reached the point where she was effectively just sitting in a chair for days and weeks on end?"

Coral said: "Yes."

She agreed she did everything for her mother.

By this stage, Coral agreed, her Charles Street home had become an "open house", with all manner of visitors from what Mr Hedworth called the "grey area" of drug abuse.

They visited to share and take drugs.

Coral Edgar accepted her mother used Ketamine as an anaesthetic.

Her life reached the stage where day and night ceased to have any meaning. Her mother at her time of arrest weight five-and-a-half stones - or less, said Coral Edgar.

In earlier evidence, Coral Edgar said she had been addicted to drugs since being a teenager and was spending £40 a day of cocaine - which she "cooked" to make crack cocaine - and £20 per day on cannabis.

Finding drugs had become the "main driver" in her life at the time as she struggled to cope with personal problems, she said.

Mr McKnight supplied drugs to her and her mother, she said.

The prosecution say he was attacked over a drugs debt and the violence was inflicted by Jamie Davison, 26, of Beverley Rise, Harraby, Arron Graham, also 26, of Blackwell Road, Currock; and Jamie Lee Roberts, 18, of Grey Street.

The latter's father, Paul Roberts, 51, also of Grey Street, allegedly helped. All six deny murder. The trial continues.