A Banbury murder jury was told that bloodstained knifeman Mark Meadows and his half-brother Travis Gorton said ‘it’s dealt with’ before fleeing the scene.
Kieron White told Oxford Crown Court on Thursday that he had been in the living room of alleged victim Keith Green’s house on the night of the fatal stabbing on February 13.
About ’20 to 30 minutes’ after Mr Green’s partner, Louise Grieve, returned to the house – drunk – after 11pm, he claimed the back door was ‘flung open’ and he saw Meadows and Gorton ‘run through’ the kitchen and ‘into the hallway’.
Meadows was wearing dark clothing, he said. There appeared to be bloodstaining on the shin of his left trouser leg and had a sheathed knife hanging from his belt.
“All they did was pop their heads round the corner and said he was dealt with, then as soon as they said that they was out the door,” said Mr White, who had arrived at the property in the afternoon to play on the PlayStation and hang out with his friend Callum Johnson – Ms Grieve’s son and one of the five accused of Mr Green’s murder.
He was asked by prosecutor Vanessa Marshall KC how Grieve, then lying on the living room floor, reacted to the presence of the two men.
He said: “After they’d run out Louise has said ‘what’s the banging, what’s going on?’”
The two men were said to have run back the way they came, towards the back door.
Mr White was unable to say, under questioning from Ms Marshall, which of the two men said ‘Louise, it’s dealt with’.
“Can you remember how the words were said? The voice, the emotion?” Ms Marshall asked.
He replied: “More like a shaky voice. Really shaky.”
The witness said that, after Grieve returned from playing bingo after 11pm, he had heard a side gate being opened.
When Louise Grieve came into the house she appeared to be drunk and was said to have asked where Keith was. “She spoke, like, quietly. More of a whisper.”
Mr White told the jury: “She couldn’t speak because of how drunk she was. She just kept laughing. She fell to the floor, just flopped herself down to the floor, just in front of the big sofa.”
He said he tried to ask how her evening was, but she ‘kept laughing and rolling around on the floor’.
Following the stabbing, Mr White was said to have had a conversation with pal Johnson about the events.
Shadow was thrown over his recollection of that conversation under cross-examination from Johnson’s barrister, Judy Khan KC.
Mr White accepted it was ‘possible’ that after the stabbing his friend had told him he ‘did not know’ what was ‘going on’. “I thought he said he knew what was going on,” the witness said.
Ms Khan told Mr White: “You’re stressed, you’re shocked by what you’ve seen. You’ve told him by then that Mark had stabbed Keith.
“He was stressed and [after saying] ‘I don’t know what’s going on’, I suggest what he went on to say is ‘I thought they might beat him up at some point but I didn’t know he was going to be stabbed’.
“Is it possible that’s what he said to you?”
Mr White answered: “Yes, could be.”
Earlier, Andrew Selby KC, for Meadows, put it to White: “A number of people, including Mark Meadows, Louise [Grieve] and Callum [Johnson] made it clear to you they wanted to talk to Keith.”
No, the witness said.
“They wanted to get him to leave Howard Road,” Mr Selby pressed.
Mr White, who told the barrister he had been wearing Nike AirMax trainers on the night of the alleged murder, maintained his earlier answer: “No, never spoke to me about it.”
Meadows, 25, of Rees Court, Banbury, Gorton, 20, of Well Bank, Hook Norton, Mr Green’s former partner Louise Grieve, 38, her son Callum Johnson, 20, both of Howard Road, Banbury, and a youth who cannot be identified for legal reasons, all deny murder. Meadows and Gorton have also pleaded not guilty to possession of a bladed article.
The trial continues.
Read more from this author
This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.
To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article