FISE AMES MURDER TRIAL: Updates from court as jury told victim stabbed ten times in legs as he was on bed

Shaun Riches, Michael Raine and Scott Mitchell went into Faisal Ames Abdou's home, in South Shields, in the early hours of the morning andsubjected him to a deadly knife attack, it is claimed.

Newcastle Crown Court heard the killer trio were caught on CCTV camera as they walked towards the flat where Mr Abdou, who was known as Fise, was living and audio footage, which was played to jurors, captured the sounds of a "disturbance" during the short time they were inside.

Prosecutor Francis Fitzgibbon QC told the court Mr Abdou, who was 25, was taken to South Tyneside District Hospital after the attack but died through blood loss.

The court heard one of his wounds, which was below his right knee, cut a major vein in half and would have been fatal on its own.

A pathologist concluded the other wounds contributed to the loss of blood which killed him.

Riches, 24, of Wycliffe Avenue, Newcastle, Raine, 35, of Grace House, Percy Main, North Tyneside, and Mitchell, 25, of no fixed abode, all deny murder and are being tried by a jury.

Mr Fitzgibbon has told jurors the three accused men and their victim lived in a "dark and dangerous world", "a world where violence was common place" and were drug users.

The court heard in the early hours of March 5 Mr Abdou was in the bedroom of a flat he was sharing with Brandon Cairns at Marshall Wallis Road, South Shields.

Mr Fitzgibbon said Mr Abdou and Mr Cairns had been friends since childhood and had been out together on the night of March 4 then returned home and smoked cannabis.

The court heard shortly before the three killers arrived at the flat, Mr Cairns had received a phone call from someone, asking if they could come over.

Mr Fitzgibbon said: "The prosecution say this was a phone call made by Mr Mitchell.

"Mr Cairns, shortly after the call, heard a knock and opened the door.

"He saw Mr Raine, who he knew, and the two other men. Their faces were partly covered with bandanas, he says.

"They came in he thought, at first, for a party but, the prosecution say, Mr Raine then produced a knife and held it to Mr Cairns' abdomen and said 'I wouldn't go in there if I were you', while the other two, Mr Riches and Mr Mitchell, went into the bedroom where Faisal was.

"He was in or on his bed.

"Brandon Cairns heard fighting and raised voices from the room. "

Mr Fitzgibbon said the three men left the flat after a "couple of minutes" and added: "Cairns then went into the bedroom and saw blood streaming from Faisal's legs.

"Faisal said, 'Brandon, I've been stabbed'. Mr Cairns called 999 for an ambulance."

Mr Fitzgibbon said police, paramedics and hospital doctors tried to save Mr Abdou but he had "lost too much blood" and was pronounced dead at 4.45am on March 5.

Mr Fitzgibbon told jurors: "The prosecution say that the defendants acted together in killing Faisal.

"It is our case Mr Riches and Mr Mitchell inflicted the fatal stab injuries, while Mr Raine helped by keeping Brandon Cairns out of the way.

"We say all of them intended either to kill Faisal or at the very least to cause him really serious physical injury.

"Mr Raine may not have stabbed him but we say he was in on it and gave intentional assistance to the other two, who did the deed.

"We say that makes it murder by all of them."

The court heard Mitchell was arrested at an address in Houghton.

Riches and Raine were arrested at West Park in South Shields, where Riches had a knife concealed in his hoodie and Raine was wearing body armour with a sheath containing two knives.

They all denied murder when interviewed by detectives.

Prosecution witness Kayley Holmes told jurors her lifestyle was "very chaotic" and she was on drugs at the time of the killing.

She told the court she knew Michael Raine and both he and Shaun Riches had gone to her house in the hours after Mr Abdou was attacked, although she did not know about the killing at that time.

Miss Holmes said Raine asked her to lie during a phone call after they left and told jurors: "He asked me if the police asked any questions to say he was at my house at the time of Faisal's murder but obviously I didn't know Faisal was murdered at this point."

Miss Holmes said she agreed during the call but had no intention of lying.

Miss Holmes said she knew Faisal for a long time and said he was a "lovely lad" and a user of crack cocaine and heroin.

She confirmed Faisal would carry a bottle of ammonia with him and added: "Yes he did, for his own protection, which I totally understand why, in a way."

Miss Holmes added: "A lot of people in South Shields didn't like him but he never burned his bridges with me so I liked him, I always will. He never did nothing wrong to me, in fact he always protected me if anything."

The trial continues.