A JURY has heard graphic details of how the two women accused of murdering Carlisle man Lee McKnight were addicted to drugs.

Over three days this week, 26-year-old Coral Edgar has told the city’s crown court about the extent to which she and her mother Carol, 47, were in the grip of drug addiction when Mr McKnight died.

Coral Edgar is accused of “luring” him to her Charles Street home in the city before he was “beaten to the point of death” early on July 24 last year.

The prosecution say three men - Jamie Davison, 26, Jamie Lee Roberts, 18, and Arron Graham, 26, subjected him to that severe beating.

Mr McKnight - badly injured but alive - was then transported in a Nissan Navara jeep to countryside south of Carlisle and “dumped” in a river.

The teenager’s father Paul Roberts, 51, and Carol Edgar, are accused of helping the others.

All six defendants deny murder.

In her testimony, Coral Edgar this week said she had been too "scared" to report what she saw happen at her home on the day Mr McKnight died because she "feared repercussions."

But she now felt that she had to describe what happened because it was the right thing to do.

Edgar told the jury she had been addicted to drugs since she was a teenager. At the time when Mr McKnight died, she said, she was spending £40 per day on crack cocaine and £20 per day on cannabis.

Mr McKnight had been the main drug supplier for both her and her mother, she said.

Jamie Davison - also a drug dealer - had “landed at her home” in the days before July 24 but she was "not bothered" by this due to personal problems.

Coral Edgar said she did not expect violence when Mr McKnight arrived at her home in the early hours of that morning.

But Davison had “appeared” behind her and barged past as she let Mr McKnight into her home, she said.

Davison then punched Mr McKnight in the face, she said. She describing how the two men “grappled” as Davison took Mr McKnight into the kitchen, where she heard them shouting.

Davison sounded “loud and aggressive,” she said.

Edgar said she did not hear Mr McKnight’s voice but added: “I did hear punches - skin on skin; like someone getting punched.” She heard “constant punches” and it sounded “ferocious,” she said.

At the time, Jamie Davison was the only other person in the house, she said.

Asked how she felt about what was happening, Coral Edgar replied: “I was really scared.” She turned on the TV but this did not drown the sounds.

She covered her eyes and ears, she said.

Edgar then described going briefly to the kitchen door and seeing three people - Jamie Davison, 26, Jamie Lee Roberts, 18, and Arron Graham, 26, standing there as Mr McKnight lay on the floor.

“He was lying on the floor, nearly curled into a ball. There was blood on the floor. He was in a foetal position on the floor. I didn’t go into the kitchen; I backed out.”

Coral Edgar was then quizzed about her mother’s life in July last year. Carol Edgar had recently gone through a relationship breakdown and so had moved in with Coral.

After the break-up, Carol Edgar had “spiralled downhill”, she confirmed and took even more drugs, she said

Coral agreed her mother took cocktails of drugs - cocaine, heroin, Valium, pregabalin, and Ketamine.

She was injecting them and at times this triggered psychosis, suggested Toby Hedworth QC. “Yes”, said Coral Edgar.

“She was doing herself severe physical harm, wasn’t she? She was literally writhing flesh from her hips.” Coral Edgar said: “She’d pull veins from her legs, saying they were snakes.”

Under cross-examination, Coral Edgar confirmed that the only violence she actually saw Davison inflict was the punch he delivered to Mr McKnight near her front door.

She repeated her earlier claim that he had come into the living room after what sounded like at "ferocious" beating and apologised, saying that "It was not meant to have gone that far."

In earlier testimony, Davison blamed Jamie Lee Roberts for taking the violence too far that night.

Mr McKnight’s murder is denied by Coral and Carol Edgar, 47, both of Charles Street; Davison, of Beverley Rise, Harraby; Graham, of Blackwell Road, Currock; Jamie Lee Roberts, of Grey Street; and his father Paul Roberts, 51, also of Grey Street.

The trial continues.