A man has denied ever being inside a Nissan Navara which was used to transport badly injured Lee McKnight to a river where his body was found.
Paul Roberts, aged 51, gave evidence for a third day at Carlisle Crown Court where he and five others are on trial accused of murdering 26-year-old Mr McKnight in the early hours of July 24 last year.
Roberts says he took a rucksack containing clothes to a Charles Street address for his son and fellow suspect, Jamie Lee Roberts, 18, after violence occurred. Roberts senior saw Mr McKnight lying unconscious and bleeding in the kitchen, and told jurors he checked for a pulse before carrying out chest compressions on him.
“There was a lot of blood on his face, around his head and the part of the floor his head was on,” recalled Roberts. “It was hard to see individual injuries because there was quite a lot of bleeding.”
Roberts alleges two other suspects, Jamie Davison and Arron Graham, then carried Mr McKnight from the address. He said he saw Davison with Mr McKnight in the back seat of a Nissan Navara which he then heard driving off.
Davison’s barrister, Richard Pratt QC, suggested to Roberts: “It was you and Jamie Lee who carried Lee McKnight to the car.”
But Roberts said: “Jamie Lee had already left the house.”
Mr Pratt suggested: “But you helped carry him to the car and put him there.”
Roberts replied: “No sir, but I would have helped if they had asked me.”
Then Mr Pratt said: “You understand it has been made quite clear throughout this case, we are suggesting to you it was you who drove the Navara to the river, and put Lee McKnight in the river. You know that’s our suggestion, and no doubt you deny it.”
Roberts responded: “I have never been in that car. Not ever.” He added: “That lad, whether he was alive or whether he was on the verge of being dead, he needed to go to hospital.”
Roberts said it was his “wish” he had called an ambulance himself and has told of later burning clothes belonging to his son. He stated that Davison had indicated he would assist Mr McKnight and understood Davison was taking him to a hospital.
But Mr Pratt suggested to Roberts: “That’s what you told Arron Graham and Jamie Davison that you were going to do. You were going to take him to hospital but you didn’t, did you?”
“No I didn’t, no,” said Roberts.
Mr Pratt asked: “Jamie Davison gave you his telephone as you made that journey to the river, is that right?”
Roberts replied: “You know it’s not right. It’s ridiculous.”
Fiona Horlick QC, for Graham, suggested to Roberts senior it would have been in his son’s interests for Mr McKnight to go to hospital. “That’s what I should have done,” said Roberts.
“Did you know or believe him to be dead?” asked Ms Horlick.
“No,” replied Roberts.
Ms Horlick suggested: “Arron Graham wasn’t in the house that night, was he?”
“He was, ma’am,” responded Roberts.
Caroline Goodwin QC, for another suspect, Coral Edgar, asked Roberts why he didn’t stand up to drug-dealing middle man Davison when, as he earlier claimed, he wouldn’t allow an ambulance to be called. Roberts has previously told jurors his son owed a drug debt to Davison.
Roberts replied: “All I am is just the dad of a punter. I am nowt to him. You have got Jamie Davison and the people above him. That’s what you have got to worry about.”
All six defendants deny murder, and the trial — which is in its sixth week — continues.
