Murder jury told of passerby's attempts to save man stabbed five times in the street

Peter Clark was on his way home from doing a set at a hotel when he came across Mr Gilling lying in the road outside flats at Melsonby Court, Billingham.

Mr Clark and his friend Richard Grey gave first aid to Mr Gilling.

"I was driving in my van when I was flagged down by a man I know to be Richie Gray," said Mr Clark in a statement read to the jury at Teesside Crown Court.

"I knelt down beside the person I now know to be Peter Gilling.

"There was a lot of blood coming from a wound to the thigh, and a lot of blood on the road.

"At one point I thought I could feel a pulse.

"My first aid skills aren't the best, but we tried to apply pressure to the wound to stem the bleeding."

The court heard paramedics were quickly on the scene, and applied a tourniquet to the wound.

Mr Gilling was taken to James Cook University Hospital.

He died from blood loss from a stab wound.

Pc Christopher Harding, of Cleveland Police, said he was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene.

Pc Harding said he saw a black handled Stanley knife lying on the ground next to Mr Gilling.

The court heard earlier the Stanley knife could not be the murder weapon because its blade could not cause the size of wound suffered by Mr Gilling.

Darren Willans, 31, of Warren Court, Hartlepool, and Derek Pallas, 36, of Marsh House Avene, Billingham, both deny murder on September 29.

Both men admit being with Mr Gilling shortly before he was injured, but they both deny stabbing him.

Proceeding.