Stabbing trial latest (From Thurrock Gazette)

Stabbing trial latest

4:00pm Friday 5th October 2012 in News

A TAXI driver told police how he drove two men to the scene of a knife attack that nearly killed another man.

Robert Knight, 50, of Lowlands Road, Aveley, said he did not see the assault but a jury was told yesterday how he heard screams coming from the scene.
 

Moments later, the two men returned to his taxi with one of them bleeding badly from an arm wound.

Knight drove back to south Essex dropping the bleeding man off in Basildon and the other in South Ockendon.

He then used the stain remover Vanish to get rid of the blood on the back seat of his taxi and went to work on the school run.
 

Chelmsford Crown Court has heard how Knight is one of four men allegedly involved in a plot to murder Jamie Usedon.

He was attacked and stabbed outside his home in Dudley Road, Clacton, in March this year and only survived thanks to the quick actions of neighbours and paramedics.
 

Knight was arrested by police after his taxi was picked up by automatic number plate recognition and bosses at Thameside Taxis in Grays told police he was using the red Vauxhall Vectra at the time.

Knight told officers he had been approached by a man
as he sat in his car outside the Jack O' Lantern pub in South Ockendon one night.
 

The man wanted to know if he could drive him to Clacton and asked how much it would cost.
 

Knight said £120 and there were four trips from South Ockendon to Clacton all made in the early hours of the morning in March this year.

"I got the impression they were casing the place," Knight told police.
 

On another trip, Knight said he saw a man get out of a van in Dudley Road and one of the men said: "He works nights, he's on nights. At least we now know he's on nights."
 

On the day of the incident Knight picked up the men from Buckles Lane in South Ockendon at around 3.45am and drove through the fog to Clacton.
 

On the way there, there were comments from the men along the lines of "when we get paid we will have a right proper jolly," Knight said.
 

At the scene, Knight told police: "When we pulled up, one of them went and put something in the lock of the house, it was the older man.
 

"He said he won't be able to get in his house straight away," Knight said.
 

He added: "That's when they got out of the car. I saw a man and they walked towards him. They were trying to accost him."
 

Knight told police he drove off up the road thinking "that's a little bit heavy for me" and said he could hear "a few screams" but did not see what was happening and did not see any weapons.
 

Moments later, the two men returned to the car and said "let's go, let's go."
 

The younger man was bleeding and Knight told police he "dumped" him in Basildon before dropping off the older man outside the garden centre in South Ockendon.
 

Knight said he used Vanish to get blood off the seat of his cab before he went to work on the school run.

"My head's gone," he told police. "What have i done."

Mr Usedon, a 23-year-old demolition worker was  on his way home after working a night shift on March 15 this year when the incident took place shortly after 6am.

Daniel Yates, 40, of Araglen Avenue, South Ockendon, and Dale Frame, 25, of Broxbourn Drive, South Ockendon, are alleged to have been the knifemen who had been driven to the scene by Knight.