Mum describes kneeling down with stabbed stranger she found dying to jury in trial of Hartlepool murder accused

A mum kneeled down with a stabbed stranger who she found dying outside her home - and spoke to his alleged killer, murder jurors have heard.
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Mr Stokoe died from a wound that went through his neck and severed his carotid artery and jugular vein.

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Prosecutors claim after the murder, Rahman concocted a "pack of lies" to try and get himself out of trouble and put the blame on Mr Stokoe.

Police forensic officers survey the scene in Melville Street in Chester-le-Street.Police forensic officers survey the scene in Melville Street in Chester-le-Street.
Police forensic officers survey the scene in Melville Street in Chester-le-Street.

Rahman, of Eamont Gardens, Hartlepool, denies murder and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and is being tried by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court.

Kirsty Barrass, who lived in the street of the fatal clash at Melville Street, Chester-le-Street, said she was woken in the early hours of July 21 last year by a noise, "like a thud".

She told jurors she looked out of the window and saw someone lying in the street and a man walking into a house opposite hers.

Miss Barrass, who called 999, said the man on the ground had "something dark, like blood or something running out of him" and she went outside and tried to alert other neighbours who could help.

Alan Stokoe, 26, from Chester-le-Street, was named as the victim of a stabbing in Melville Street in Chester-le-Street.Alan Stokoe, 26, from Chester-le-Street, was named as the victim of a stabbing in Melville Street in Chester-le-Street.
Alan Stokoe, 26, from Chester-le-Street, was named as the victim of a stabbing in Melville Street in Chester-le-Street.
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She said she then went back inside and called her daughter, told her she thought someone was dead in the street.

"She said 'mam, stay in the house, lock the doors, don't go back out',” she said.

"I thought if it was my son or daughter lying out there, I couldn't stay in the house and leave him on the street. I went back out.

"I remember sort of like screaming. I went back over to him, knelt down next to him. That's when that man came out of the house.”

She added: "I shouted, I said what's gong on here, what's happened. I was kneeling down and he was just standing, looking over me."

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Miss Barrass said the man who approached, who prosecutors say was Rahman, told her the injured person on the ground was Alan Stokoe.

She added: "I said 'what's happened' and he said 'he's come to my house with two knives', he said 'he stabbed me so I've stabbed him'."

Miss Barrass said the man pulled up his top to show her his injuries but she was unable to see anything due to the lack of lighting.

She said it was soon after that she heard sirens and the emergency services approached.

The trial continues.

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