Thurrock quartet attempted murder trial: the latest (From Thurrock Gazette)

Thurrock quartet attempted murder trial: the latest

4:12pm Tuesday 2nd October 2012 in News

A MAN accused of being involved in a murder plot told police he knew nothing about the plan.

A court has heard how Jamie Usedon was attacked outside his home in March this year.

Four men are accused of plotting to murder the 23-year-old demolition worker near his home in Dudley Road, Clacton.
 

But a jury heard on Today how one man arrested over the plot told police he hadn’t set foot in Clacton for 20 years.

Chelmsford Crown Court has heard how Mr Usedon was left for dead after he was attacked outside his house.

His cries for help were answered by neighbours rushing to the scene with towels to stop blood pouring from a series of stab wounds
One neighbour told police: "He was in a bad way, leaking like a sieve."
 

Mr Usedon was on his way home after working a night shift on March 15 this year when he was attacked by two men dressed in dark clothing, hoodies and armed with large kitchen knives.

The attack did not last long but it left him with two stab
wounds to his chest, two in the neck close to vital arteries, two stab wounds in the back, one to his right wrist and one which severed the little finger on his right hand.

Chelmsford Crown Court has heard how he spend two weeks in hospital and at one point, was in a medically induced coma on a life support machine.
 

The prosecution alleges Dale Frame, 25, of Broxbourn Drive, South Ockendon, and Daniel Yates , 40, of Araglen Avenue, South Ockendon, were the knifemen who had been driven to the scene by taxi driver Robert Knight, 50, of Lowlands Road, Aveley.

A fourth man, Edwin Schreech-Powell, 30, of Garth Road, South Ockendon, is alleged to have planned the operation.

All four deny conspiring to murder Mr Usedon.

But the court heard how Yates told police after he was arrested he knew nothing about the attack on Mr Usedon.

"I do not know anybody from Clacton," Yates told police.

He also told officers he did not know Mr Usedon and on the day of the incident, he had been at home.

Yates told police he was a self-employed close protection bodyguard working for bands and celebrities.

He was not working the night before the incident but told police he had been at home.

He suffers from insomnia and said he probably went for a walk in the early hours but could not remember for sure.
 

Later in the morning, he visited friends and told police he was nowhere near Clacton, the jury heard.

Prosecutor Mark Milliken-Smith QC has told the trial the reason for the attack is not clear but there may be a suggestion drugs were involved.

*The trial continues.