NEIGHBOURS living near the Carlisle house where Lee McKnight was 'attacked' described hearing a person shouting out 'in pain'.

Throughout today, a couple who lived in Charles Street - where the prosecution say 26-year-old Mr McKnight was "beaten to the point of death" - have outlined what they heard and saw in the early hours of July 24 last year before Mr McKnight was thrown in to a river.

Six people deny his murder.

The accused include 26-year-old Coral Edgar and her mother Carol, 47, who lived in the terraced Charles Street property.

The first witness today was a young woman, who described being woken in the early hours by boyfriend, who told her something was "kicking off" over the road.

Looking out of an upstairs window, she said, she could see the shadows of people through the front door glass panels of the house where the Edgars lived.

The shadows showed three people she took to be men were "hitting down" at somebody on the floor.

"How hard were each of them hitting," asked prosecuting QC Timothy Cray.

The woman replied: "Putting all their force into it, I'd say."

She was asked what the people whose shadows she saw were hitting down with.

"I couldn't tell you what it was," said the woman. "I could see it was something longer than a hand."

Mr Cray asked: "Striking towards something on the floor." The woman said: "That's right, yes."

The witness recalled hearing a man's voice crying out three times from behind the door. It sounded like somebody "in pain," she said.

In her statement to police, she said she believed that somebody was being "punished." The woman also heard music coming from the house, she said.

In later evidence, she was asked about seeing the arrival in Charles Street of Coral Edgar's mother Carol in her vehicle.

Just before this, the shadows had moved away from the front door, but she then saw another shadow there. "I saw Coral's shadow - as if she was mopping," said the woman.

"I took it to be mopping. It looked like it was mopping. She was going side to side, kind of thing."

Asked why she thought the person was Coral, the woman said: "Because I could see the ponytail - how Coral had her hair."

She also then saw Coral unlock the front door to let in her mother, she said.

Both Coral Edgar and Carol Edgar deny murder.

The same allegation is also denied by Jamie Davison, 26, of Beverley Rise, Harraby; Arron Graham, 26, of Blackwell Road, Currock; Jamie Lee Roberts, 18, of Grey Street; and his father

Paul Roberts, 51, also of Grey Street. The prosecution say Mr McKnight was beaten up because he owed Davison a drugs debt.

Mr Cray has said that pathology evidence showed he was still alive when he was thrown into the River Caldew near Cummersdale. Mr McKnight's body was found shortly after 5am on July 24 by a farmer.

The trial continues.