Four men and two women have been convicted of murdering Carlisle man Lee McKnight, who was brutally beaten to the brink of death before being dumped in a city river.
Mr McKnight was the victim of a suspected torture beating after being lured to a city address during the early hours of July 24 last year.
At that time, the 26-year-old — a drug peddler who also worked legitimately at a Carlisle Premier Inn — owed a large debt to fellow dealer Jamie Davison, a self-confessed “middle man” who operated higher up the illegal supply chain.
Months earlier Mr McKnight had gone to ground at a time when Davison, along with angry and aggressive weapon-wielding men, were seeking him out.
After taking a taxi from his city home in the early hours of July 24 last year, Mr McKnight went to a Charles Street house but, on entry, was attacked in both the living room and kitchen.
Lee McKnight’s two-hour ordeal
During a dreadful two-hour ordeal he was punched, kicked, stamped on, beaten about the head with a diamanté-headed riding crop and whipped about the body with its flexible stem.
He suffered sickening multiple injuries, including 36 separate skin splits to his head alone.
Injuries to his torso and legs, jurors heard, suggested he was assaulted probably while he was secured or immobile in a chair and his blood was later found across both ground floor rooms.
Neighbours heard cries of pain
Neighbours recalled hearing cries of pain and loud music from the address at that time and seeing — through front door glass panels — several shadows involved in an apparent attack.
One resident described the street as horrible and revealed such incidents at that house were almost an everyday occurrence.
No ambulance or medical help was sought by occupants of the property.
Instead, gravely injured Mr McKnight was carried outside to a Nissan Navara which was driven south through Carlisle, off Blackwell Road, on to Lowry Street, down a track and across a livestock farmer’s field to the river Caldew.
A deeply unconscious Mr McKnight was then hoisted over barbed wire and dumped into water as he took his final shallow breaths.
His body — described in court as broken — was found, partially wrapped in a curtain, just before 5.30am by the farmer.
Meanwhile, the Navara was instantly driven away from the scene and taken to Wreay, near Carlisle, where it was hidden deep within woodland and found several days later by police.
Prosecutor Tim Cray QC said 26-year-old Davison, while himself being chased for cash by menacing out of town crooks, hatched a plan to coax Mr McKnight to the Charles Street safe house; recruited the muscle of friend Arron Graham, also 26, and teenager Jamie Lee Roberts, then aged just 17; and drafted in others to “muck in and respond to events as they developed”.
Defendants did not ‘care a jot’ for Lee McKnight’s life
“The only rational conclusion from actions of that kind,” Mr Cray said of the attack which had unfolded, “is that some person or more likely persons wanted to do Lee at least really serious bodily harm: that must follow from the injuries he received.”
The defendants, he stated, “cared not one jot Lee’s life”.
But while connections between defendants initially appeared strong, “team loyalty” swiftly broke down.
In court, Davison denied plotting to lure Mr McKnight to the address, seeking to shift the blame and claiming Roberts — now 18 — was the chief culprit and said he saw him wielding the riding crop.
The jury heard Roberts had told a former girlfriend that just one person — “a real psychopath” — had got out of hand. She understood the teen was describing Davison.
Graham denied even being at the house. But a week later, jurors were told, he made a chilling phone threat to the deceased’s friend, who gave evidence during the trial and recalled of Graham:
“He said he was going to chop my head off with a machete and put me in the river like he did with Lee McKnight.”
Jury deliberated for more than 27 hours
Coral Edgar, 26, was said by the prosecution to have lured Mr McKnight to Charles Street, while her 47-year-old mother and fellow drug addict, Carol Edgar, provided the Navara. Paul Roberts, 51, took fresh clothing to Charles Street after receiving a call from his son Jamie Lee, while also tossing a phone into a drain after he left the address and burning other items.
Following a seven-week trial and after six days and more than 27 hours of deliberations, the jury of seven women and five men found all defendants guilty of murder — Davison, Graham, Jamie Lee Roberts and Coral Edgar unanimously; and Carol Edgar and Paul Roberts on majority 10-2 verdicts.
All six were remanded in custody by the trial judge, Mr Justice Hilliard, who is due to pass sentence on a date to be fixed.
