A SECOND suspect in a murder case has tearfully told a court of the moment he learned that his cousin had been stabbed to death.

Dominic Pickering – one of five Middlesbrough men on trial – sobbed as he recalled an incident in which Steven Willis was knifed in the heart.

Mr Willis died at the scene in Normanby, near Middlesbrough, while his father John Pickering and half-brother Lennon Pickering also suffered stab wounds.

Dominic Pickering, 23, his brother Mark Pickering, 32, their cousin Kieran Ibitson, 21, Jamahl Weaver, 22, and Jack Cross, 22, all deny murder and manslaughter, and wounding Lennon, 17, with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

All but Ibitson have also pleaded not guilty to wounding John Pickering with intent, with Ibitson admitting he took a large hunting knife to the house and stabbed his uncle.

The "disgusting" violence erupted on April 16 after a funeral and wake and was a bloody culmination of a long-running family feud.

John Pickering - a well-known street fighter with a fearsome reputation in and around Middlesbrough - and his sister Susan Ibitson had been at loggerheads for years.

At a family funeral, the siblings argued again, Mrs Ibitson was said to have been knocked to the ground, and Mr Pickering and Mark Pickering came to blows.

The prosecution alleges that the five "teamed up" to tackle the 47-year-old hard-man, who came from his garden bare-chested to meet them when they arrived.

Dominic Pickering claimed his uncle was clapping his hands and saying: "Come on, who wants it first?"

He told his barrister, Bryan Cox, QC: "I said you're out of order Uncle John. You're a bully."

The father-of-one ended up fighting boxing-style with Lennon, after he said the teenager jumped off a wall and said: "What are you going to do, you fat c***."

He said he had no knowledge of anyone taking a knife to the scene in Meadowcroft Road, or that anyone had been stabbed until he started getting text messages and calls saying Lennon had been injured and Mr Willis was dead.

Sobbing, he told the jury: "I was absolutely devastated. I didn't believe it.

"I went to my dad's and I could tell straight away something was wrong. He said 'just sit there now' and I explained what I had seen and what I had done, and said 'I'm going to have to go and speak to the police'."

Earlier that day at the wake at the Teesside Bridge Social Club, he said a photograph was taken of him, Lennon and Mr Willis because it was not often the three of them were together.

He said it was less than an hour before the violence, that he and his uncle had hugged and kissed, and Mr Pickering had consoled him at the crematorium when he got upset, saying: "You're ok son, your Uncle John in here."

Mr Pickering, a shift leader at British Steel, described his uncle as a role model, and said there had never been a single cross word with Mr Willis in their lives, and they did many things together when they were younger.

He told the jury that he had had six or seven pints of Coors Light and taken a single small line of cocaine at the wake, and was neither drunk nor sober.

He said he thought the four men were going to Mr Pickering's home so his brother and uncle could work out their differences like members of the family had often done in the past.

Under cross-examination from prosecutor Richard Wright, QC, he admitted what had happened was "terrible" and that anyone who had seen the violence in the street would have thought it was "disgusting".

Character referenced from three people – including a vicar who had known him nearly all his life – described him variously as "well-liked and respected", "a man of real integrity and honesty" and "a family-oriented young man".

Earlier, under cross-examination from Mr Wright, Ibitson said none of the others knew he had the knife, and he had it possession throughout the fighting.