It was a routine day on calls in 2013 – where you monitor any emergency incidents alongside normal reporting duties – and then it all kicked off in a normally quiet part of the city. As things progressed it moved from one location to another in the evening but I still managed to file my copy ahead of the deadline for the next day’s edition. I only had a camera phone but, despite the unusually wide police cordon (allegedly to preserve the crime scene), I still managed to improvise to get these pics. It turned out it was a disagreement over a drugs debt and when it finally went to court the following year the evidence was horrific (but that is par for the course when you are covering court cases)…

A MURDER probe has been launched after one man died and another was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Armed police were called to the scene, in Etterby Lea Road, Carlisle, shortly after 5pm last night – the second armed incident in the city in three hours.

No details of the victim or how he died have been officially released but neighbours said they believed he had been stabbed.

Another man has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

The house was under police guard today and cordoned off.

Stabbed

A force spokeswoman said officers had been called at 5.11pm and found the man’s body.

She said they were working to establish who he was and inform family members.

Neighbours spoke of their shock and said a woman had been taken from the scene by police.

A man who lives opposite the house under police guard this morning claimed to know the victim.

He said he was aged in his 20s and worked as a chef in a pub in the city.

Another woman who lives a few doors away from where the incident happened said she knew of a woman who lived at the house, who “kept herself to herself”, and a younger man, who both lived there with a Rottweiler.

The neighbour said: “I had never seen anything like it, this sort of thing doesn’t happen here – there were nine or 10 police vans and three ambulances.”

She added: “I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet. When we heard it was a fatality we were horrified.

“I’ve lived here all my life and walked up and down this road thousands of times and it will never be the same again.”

One witness said it was “unheard of” to see such police presence in the area.

“There were cars all over the place, armed police and an ambulance,” she said.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. I think somebody has been stabbed. We came out but we couldn’t really see anything because there were that many cars around.

“It’s really odd because everyone gets on really well .”

She said that she saw a man being taken away in an ambulance, adding: “He was screaming in agony. A woman was taken away by the police.”

Neighbours said that Polish men had been staying at the house.

Another neighbour said he also saw the police arriving at the scene, adding: “There were so many police cars I wondered what was going on. When I came out of my house there were more police cars coming down Etterby Lea Road. It looked like an armed response unit.”

Police dog teams and officers continued to search a grassed area opposite, as well as neighbouring properties and bins, while scenes of crime investigators gathered evidence inside and around the property.

A spokeswoman for the North West Ambulance Service said they had been called by police shortly after 5pm and had taken a man with “serious injuries, but not life threatening” to the Cumberland Infirmary.

From the News & Star on Thursday , July 11, 2013.

Luke ’s horrific stab injuries are revealed

Trial told that knife blows damaged murder victim’s bones

LUKE Hollingsworth’s killer would have had to use “considerable force” when stabbing his victim, according to the pathologist who examined his injuries.

Dr Alison Armour was giving evidence at Carlisle Crown Court yesterday as the murder trial entered its second week.

It was also revealed that injuries to murder accused Jamie Armstrong’s hands could have been either self inflicted, or received while he was trying to defend himself.

Dr Armour said that “multiple stab wounds” were the cause of Mr Hollingsworth’s death and some of the injuries were so serious that they alone would have been enough to end the 23-year-old’s life.

She outlined a range of wounds to his head, neck, chest, abdomen, legs and arms and said some had damaged the bone. She said: “If a knife causes damage to the bone it requires considerable force to inflict.”

Dr Armour said that one of the chest wounds was 16cm deep and it had punctured the right lung, causing it to collapse.

She added that another, in the abdominal cavity, had severed both the vein and artery of his left kidney producing catastrophic bleeding.

She said: “If you are not near a hospital you are going to die from this massive blood loss.”

When asked about Armstrong’s injuries to both hands – which included a deep cut to the left palm – she said that the could have been self-inflicted because they were all easily accessible.

However she added: “They are typical of defence-type injuries. The deep wound to the palm of the left hand in my view would be consistent with someone trying to grab the blade of a knife.”

When interviewed by police, Armstrong he claimed memory loss over what had happened, caused by a combination of smoking cannabis and blood loss.

However expert witness Professor Charles Deakin, who works with patients who have suffered blood loss in Hampshire, said his blood pressure readings and pulse rate did not back this up.

He said: “The blood pressure was certainly elevated and higher than what would be considered normal.

“It was perhaps slightly higher than normal blood pressure which might be the result of an adrenaline fuelled struggle.”

The trial continues.

Mr Hollingsworth was found dead at his home in Etterby Lea Road, Stanwix, on July 10 last year. Armstrong denies murder.

From the News & Star on Tuesday, June 10, 2014.

Desperate moments

Stabbing victim tried to hold door closed against knife attacker

VICTIM Luke Hollingsworth tried to hold the bathroom door closed against his attacker shortly before he died from multiple stab wounds.

A jury at Carlisle Crown Court also heard that a fingerprint in his blood was left at the scene by Jamie Armstrong, who denies murdering the 23-year-old pub worker.

He was found dead in his Etterby Lea Road home, in the Stanwix area of Carlisle, on July 10 last year.

As the trial entered its eighth day yesterday, statements – which were not disputed by either the defence or prosecution teams – were read to the eight women and four men of the jury.

In addition to the fingerprint and DNA evidence, the admissions included details of items which were seized during police searches – including cash and drugs.

Prosecution barrister Kim Whittlestone said that the location of Mr Hollingsworth’s fingerprints would have made it awkward for him to be opening the bathroom door and said it was consistent with him holding the door shut with his left hand.

She said DNA and fingerprint evidence was also found on a wall leading to a downstairs hallway and added: “There was a fingerprint in blood on a wall in the kitchen from Jamie Armstrong and the blood it was left in was that of Luke Hollingsworth.”

The court heard that no traces of DNA from Armstrong were found on knives which were examined at the scene but a fingerprint from Mr Hollingsworth was found on one of the blades.

Ms Whittlestone said that when police searched an address in Warwick Road, where the accused had been staying, officers found an envelope containing £3,490 in cash.

She said that when the contents were examined a £20 note was found with one of Mr Hollingsworth’s fingerprints on it.

“No fingermarks of Jamie Armstrong were found on any of the bank notes but the notes did contain fingermarks of others that have been identified,” she said.

“The envelope that contained the money contained four finger marks of Jamie Armstrong.”

The court heard that police also found Mr Hollingsworth’s mobile phone on the bed as well as 26.18g of cannabis underneath it. Ms Whittlestone said: “This bag has the fingerprints of both Jamie Armstrong and Luke Hollingsworth.”

She said that a £10 note was also found in one of Armstrong’s socks which had one of Mr Hollingsworth’s fingerprints.

And under one of the bedroom floorboards at the Etterby Lea Road address police found three bags of cannabis – each weighing 26.25g, 26.78g and 26.67g – which were wrapped in a larger sandwich bag.

Ms Whittlestone said that two of Mr Hollingsworth’s finger prints were found on the smaller bags.

The trial continues.

From the News & Star on Thursday, June 12, 2014.