TWO pals of alleged murder victim Martin Ithell claimed a teenager admitted stabbing their friend, a court heard.
Paul Murphy, of Capenhurst Lane, Whitby, and Tony O'Donnell, of Chester, were Mr Ithell's back-up when he went to collect a debt from the Frodsham home of co-accused Scott Davidson.
Davidson, 23, and his girlfriend Rachael Horton, 19, of Hawthorn Road, Little Sutton, are on trial at Liverpool Crown Court where they deny murdering 49-year-old Mr Ithell, from Boughton, Chester, who was shot and stabbed.
Mr Murphy and the victim's best friend Mr O'Donnell, from Northgate Village, were frantic by the time they arrived at the co-accused's Frodsham home with a police officer on the evening of Friday, March 11.
According to Mr Murphy, Horton was ‘hysterical’ when she answered the door and confessed: “Some guy's come here and I have just stabbed him.”
Mr O'Donnell recalled that Horton said: “I stabbed a man” or “I stabbed somebody” which she repeated to the police officer.
The court heard former bouncer Mr Ithell, of Robinsons Croft, had asked his doormen friends for assistance because of concern Davidson had borrowed the amount owed from “unsavoury characters” who might rob him once the money was in his possession.
So the two pals travelled in a separate car but stayed in contact with Mr Ithell who wore a hands free mobile phone kit while they listened on speaker phone.
The men waited around the corner as Mr Ithell approached the home of the accused with both recalling him say Davidson was outside and wearing overalls.
Mr Murphy, who also works as a postman, remembered the last words his friend uttered before the line went dead.
“I heard him say “Hi mate, are you decorating?” and that was it.”
As the minutes passed the two friends grew increasingly concerned, with each deciding to walk close to the scene to take a look.
Mr Murphy spotted a female at a window apparently washing up which the prosecution says was the defendant Horton cleaning up the bloody scene.
Then Mr O'Donnell witnessed Mr Ithell's two door BMW parked in the road in front of the house with the passenger seat bent forward.
Moments later they saw the car being driven past them by a man they didn't recognise. The prosecution says the male was Davidson and unknown to them the deceased's body was now on the back seat.
In panic, the pair frantically located the house where they found the front steps covered in blood.
They ran to the nearby Frodsham Police station and returned with a police sergeant in a Panda car who banged on the front door with his baton.
Recalling the terrifying moment, Mr Murphy told the court: “I said “whatever comes through that door there are three of us here. You are not on your own”.”
It was then that the young girl he had seen earlier at the window opened the door in a distressed state and he noticed blood in the hallway.
The court heard Mr Murphy had taken a plastic cover for an ornamental samarai sword while Mr O'Donnell had taken a pick axe handle which they removed from their car and dumped in a skip on the way to the police station.
Barrister Richard Pratt, for Davidson, suggested Mr Ithell had taken a firearm or imitation firearm with him which one of the men had removed from the scene.
“Definitely not,” replied Mr Murphy.
The trial continues.
