Murder accused told Carlisle jury he gave Lee McKnight chest compressions

Paul Roberts, who grew up in Millom, is on trial at the city’s crown court along with 18-year-old Jamie Lee Roberts and four others. All deny murdering Mr McKnight early on 24th July last year.

Investigation: Police look for clues following the death of Lee McKnight

From the witness box today, Roberts, 51, told how he was initially awoken by calls from the phone of one other suspect, Carol Edgar, which he blocked; and then calls from another, Jamie Davison. Roberts then received a text which simply read: “It’s J.”

His son wasn’t at their Grey Street home. “This was way out of the ordinary,” said Roberts. “I was worried because Jamie Lee wasn’t in.”

Roberts called Davison’s phone and his son answered. “There was an awful lot of words,” Roberts recalled. “He was sobbing down the phone. He was saying something really bad had happened, that he was at Carol’s and would I come and get him.”

Roberts said he was asked by his son to take a camping rucksack to the Charles Street address and knocked CCTV off in his building, conscious Jamie Lee was subject to a night-time curfew.

At Charles Street he shouted through the letter box and was let in. “As soon as I walked in the front room, there was Jamie Davison and there was Jamie Lee in the front room, and Jamie Lee looked to be in a bit of a state. He had that red face, you know where someone has been crying. Red eyes,” he told jurors.

Investigation: Police look for clues following the death of Lee McKnight

Davison, he said, told him “shut up, because the lad’s in the back kitchen”, noting he looked “very ‘hopped up’ and twitchy as if he was off his face...just like coked up”.

Roberts let out a deep breath as he recalled looking into the kitchen. “There was a lad on the floor,” he said. “There was a lot of blood. He was lying with his head pointing towards the sink and his feet would be pointing towards the bottom of the stairs, sort of on an angle. Carol Edgar was cuddling her daughter Coral, also on trial, who was “in a proper state”.

Fearing his son would be implicated in the assault, Roberts told the teen to “get out”. Roberts junior changed clothes, putting his old garments in a thin plastic bag before leaving.

Asked by Carol to check on Mr McKnight, Roberts senior recalled: “I cleared his airway. I remember telling them they needed to get this lad an ambulance.” But he added: “I was told an ambulance wasn’t getting phoned.”

“Who told you that?” asked his barrister, Gordon Cole QC.

“Jamie Davison,” replied Roberts who stated, when asked whether it crossed his mind to call an ambulance himself, hinting at safety fears: “No. I was told there wasn’t an ambulance getting called. There was a good chance there was going to be me on the floor or my son.”

Roberts left, putting the white bag into a recycling bag and dropping an unknown phone into a drain on his short walk home. He returned to Charles Street in search of a lost front door key, going back to Mr McKnight to check for a pulse and saying he found a weak one in his inner thigh. “So then I attempted CPR. I didn’t give him any rescue breaths. I just gave him some chest compressions,” he said.

That seemed to have a positive effect. Davison indicated he would assist Mr McKnight, said Roberts, who told jurors: “He said he would take him to hospital and drop him off outside the emergency department.

Roberts said he watched Davison and the sixth person on trial, Arron Graham, carry Mr McKnight through the house to a Nissan Navara.

Evidence: Carol Edgar's Nissan pickup was caught on camera on the day when Lee McKnight died.

“They must have got him all the way outside. I remember seeing Jamie Davison in the back seat with Lee,” said Roberts.

He heard it drive away and found his key as he returned to Grey Street, where his son was in the shower. Roberts said he added trousers and trainers to the bag of clothing, and burned it underneath a bridge at Botcherby Park after an initially unsuccessful attempt.

Asked why he chose that location, Roberts said: “It’s where everyone off that estate goes and burns dodgy stuff.”

Under a bridge in Botcherby Park, where Jamie Lee Roberts clothes were allegedly burnt by his father, Paul Roberts. Photo: CPS

The trial continues.