Murder suspect ‘hid under shed’ (From The Northern Echo)

Murder suspect ‘hid under shed’

11:19am Thursday 23rd February 2012 in Tyne and Wear News By Gavin Havery, Reporter (Derwentside & Tyneside)

A MAN wanted for the alleged murder of his friend was found hiding under a shed.

A jury at Newcastle Crown Court was told that John Blackburn fled the scene in his father’s car after stabbing 20-year-old Cole Wilson to death.

Mr Blackburn denies murdering his friend in the living room of his former girlfriend’s house in Sledmere Close, Peterlee, County Durham, in the early hours of September 18.

Mr Blackburn is alleged to have plunged a knife into Mr Wilson’s cheekbone, cutting his carotid artery. Mr Wilson was then was stabbed in the chest with such force the blade cut through his sternum.

Pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton, whose report was read to the jury, said: “Such damage to the sternum is very rare.

“Cutting through the bone, even with a sharp-tipped knife, would require a significant severe degree of force, and this force must be maintained when resistance from the bone was met.

“It is not something that can easily be achieved within a postmortem setting, even with medical- quality sharp blades.”

The jury heard that both wounds would have required severe force.

Dr Bolton said they were both potentially fatal and it was not possible to conclude which one had killed him.

Mark Giuliani, prosecuting, said the finding was extremely significant to the case.

He said: “It means that not once, but twice, the defendant used severe force to stab his friend. Mr Wilson was not armed, he was not assaulting anyone, he did not pose a risk to anyone.

“There was no justification at all for the defendant to even threaten him with a knife, let alone stab him.”

The attack is said to have happened after a row between Mr Wilson and his girlfriend, Jade Blackburn, at Kim McGuire’s house.

The jury was told Mr Blackburn, who has a one-year-old daughter, got in his father’s car and drove to Hollywell Avenue, Walker, Newcastle, where he was discovered.

The clothes and trainers he had been wearing were in a washing machine and had been washed.

The trial continues.