Man denies Hartlepool slash attack

John Weegram is alleged to have slashed John Carter with a craft knife during an attack on a path off Ocean Road in Hartlepool.

Mr Carter declined to say who attacked him at the time, named Weegram a few days later, but changed his story twice more before finally saying his attacker was Weegram, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Giving evidence in his own defence yesterday, Weegram, 48, of Lowdale Lane, Hartlepool, said: “I suffer from agoraphobia which means I rarely leave the house.

“I live with my elderly mother, and I only usually go out to get essentials if we run out of milk or bread.”

Weegram denies wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm on October 17, last year.

He denies witness intimidation on October 20.

The court heard police asked Weegram several times where he was on the day of the attack, but he exercised his right to silence.

He said: “I had nothing to do with the attack on John Carter. I was in the house at the time.

“I did hear about it on social media later that day or maybe the next day,”

The court heard Weegram is in a relationship with a sister of the Carters, but that relationship had broken down at the time of the attack.

“The Carter brothers were threatening me about that,” said Weegram.

“There was stuff on texts and facebook, and I argued back.”

The court was told Weegran claimed responsibility for the attack on John Carter in a taped phone call to his brother Kevin Carter.

The court heard that, in the call, Weegram told Kevin Carter he would ‘get the same’ as his brother.

The jury heard earlier from John Carter who told the court he was frightened of giving evidence, but not frightened of Weegram.

Under questioning from Paul Reid, prosecuting, Carter said it was Weegram who stabbed him.

Mr Carter said he didn’t want to speak to the police about what had happened, and was reluctant to tell officers who stabbed him because he didn’t want to be labelled a ‘grass’.

Proceeding.