A mother whose black pick-up truck was used to transport Lee McKnight to river where his body was found told detectives in an interview: “I don’t know what’s gone on. I really don’t.”
Carol Edgar, 47, and her 26-year-old daughter, Coral, and four men, are on trial accused of murdering Mr McKnight. He was brutally attacked at an address in Charles Street before being dumped in water at around dawn on 24th July last year.
Arrested by police after the incident, Carol Edgar was interviewed five times by police with the content being read to Carlisle Crown Court trial jurors this morning.
An initial prepared statement had read: “I know nothing about the death of a Lee McKnight.”
Edgar confirmed she was the registered keeper of a black Nissan Navara, had recently been staying at her daughter’s Charles Street house and insisted she had not been either the driver of that vehicle sighted at Blackwell Hall, or present in it.
During her interviews, Edgar said she did travel in the Navara to her sister’s city home during the early hours of July 24.
She took drugs at her sister’s house and at her daughter’s address, to which she returned.
Edgar was let in by her daughter, and said she got on a couch and laid down.
“I just fell asleep and woke up with the officer sticking these things on — cuffs,” she told a detective.
Edgar had previously bought cocaine from Mr McKnight, and said she last saw him earlier that week.
There were no signs of any disturbance at Charles Street on her return — “not that I noticed” — and she said she hadn’t seen any blood.
She was shown a photo of a diamanté-headed riding crop recovered from a field near the river which is said to have been used to beat Mr McKnight around the head and body.
“It looks like one I have got,” she told officers, saying there were several at the address. “I think I actually bought it from the sex shop, but I bought it for the horse.”
Asked whether she was responsible for any criminal conduct, she replied: “I swear down, nothing whatsoever to do with me. Definitely not.”
Edgar also stated: “I never seen anything. I don’t know what’s gone on. I really don’t.”
Asked how she felt about Mr McKnight’s death, she said: “Sad. He seemed an all right lad.”
And, in response to later questioning, she added: “He was my main dealer. What am I going to kill him for?”
Suspect 51-year-old Paul Roberts, made no comment during four police interviews but a statement was later submitted on his behalf.
It stated that he was not involved in the assault or murder of Lee McKnight.
However, Roberts had been contacted by phone and was asked to take clothing to the Charles Street address, which he duly did; and was given a pair of trainers “to get rid of”.
Carol Edgar, Coral Edgar, Paul Roberts and the three other men deny murder.
The trial continues.
