Murder accused Sean Morrin offered to fight a Maryport dad half an hour before he fatally stabbed him, a jury heard.

William Richardson, 34, died at Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary the day after he sustained seven knife wounds, including one to his neck which severed a major artery. Thirty-three-year-old Morrin, now of Nelson Street, Maryport, but formerly of Carlisle, accepts inflicting those wounds but claims he acted in self-defence.

On the second day of his trial at Carlisle Crown Court, the jury heard detailed accounts of the events leading up to the tragedy in the early hours of August 8 last year.

There was evidence from Steven Bode, one of the people Mr Richardson was drinking with at Maryport’s Labour Club in Senhouse Street on the night of the stabbing.

At some point after 11pm, said Mr Bode, he went outside the club to have a cigarette. While there, he noticed a man – later identified as the defendant.

Morrin was “slumped” against a bollard, and did not seem to be in a very good state, said Mr Bode. The defendant – who formerly lived in Carlisle – was carrying a supermarket “bag for life,” and said that he was waiting for his “mate” who was in the club – a reference to Mr Richardson, said Mr Bode.

When told about Morrin, Mr Richardson said he did not know him but went outside to make sure.

After going outside again, Mr Bode challenged Morrin, asking him why he had sent him into the club to fetch a man who clearly did not know him.

Mr Richardson looked inside Morrin’s bag, and inside it saw new clothes, some still attached to shop security tags. Mr Bode told the jury: “William said he’d probably been on the rob; that he looked like a smackhead.

“That agitated [Morrin] and I argued with this fellow about it.”

A short time later, Morrin walked along the road, and, turning around, told the two men: “Come down here and I’ll fight you.”

Mr Bode said Morrin offered to fight either him or Mr Richardson, who stepped forward and told Morrin: “Fight me instead.”

Morrin ran off and the two men chased him, but gave up after losing him on a nearby street. Mr Bode then returned to the Labour Club to finish his pint.

As he did so he suddenly heard his friend Lauren Wilson repeatedly shouting his name. When he got outside, she was shouting that Mr Richardson had been stabbed.

Morrin’s defence QC, David McLachlan, asked Mr Bode: “Did you threaten him [Morrin] with ‘a world of pain’?” Mr Bode replied: “No.”

The jury also heard evidence from other witnesses who were on Senhouse Street when Mr Richardson was stabbed. Roger Rivers was drinking in the Labour Club that night, and saw Mr Richardson, Mr Bode, and their friend Miss Wilson.

The atmosphere was “convivial,” he said. He left the club at about 12.30am.

“As I walked out of the hallway,” he said, “I said goodnight ... and stepped out onto the threshold to the road. Just as I did that, a guy popped up from behind a car and stared at me.”

Mr Rivers said the man looked “disturbed”. The man scared him, he said.

Another witness, Sean McMullen, was further along the street when Mr Richardson was stabbed.

He had spoken to Mr Richardson earlier and thought he had “!seemed okay”. Mr McMullen said he saw a man approach Mr Richardson from behind.

Mr McLachlan asked: “Are you sure about that?”

The witness replied: “Yes.” He did not at any point see Mr Richardson raise his arms. Prosecuting QC Andrew Thomas asked Mr McMullen: “Did you see William Richardson hit that man, swing his feet at him, trying to kick him, or anything like that?”

Mr McMullen replied: “No. Definitely not.”

The jury also heard from former paramedic David Riddell, who was drinking inside the Labour Club. He recalled seeing a man he did not know leaving the club and speaking to a man outside with a Liverpudlian accent who was carrying a bag for life.

“As he came out of the door,” said the witness, “he said to [the man with the bag] ‘You don’t even know me. Why don’t you get out of here or I’ll give you a world of pain’.”

Mr Riddell said the man who had come out of the club had been the instigator of the argument. Later, as he was leaving the club, Mr Riddell gave first aid to Mr Richardson after seeing him collapsed on the pavement, and bleeding heavily from a wound to his neck.

He told the jury: “I put pressure on the wound on his neck; and I said ‘you’re not going to die on the side of the road tonight, mate. You just hang on’.

“He was partly conscious; he was aware I was speaking to him.”

Earlier the prosecutor told the jury that Morrin had “let slip” the truth during various comments he made to police staff after his arrest.

Mr Thomas said: “For example, when he was told the news that Mr Richardson had died in hospital, he said: ‘What have I done man...’ and ‘Why did I have to go back? He wasn’t a dad or anything was he?’”

On another occasion, the court heard, Morrin told the police staff looking after him: “I did what I did and I deserve what I get.”

The trial continues.