THE moments when Ryan Kirkpatrick was fatally stabbed by a masked man outside a Carlisle bar have been described by friends of the 24-year-old.

Mr Kirkpatrick died at Carlyle’s Court on the evening of September 18 last year after a man in dark clothing and wearing a balaclava ran up to him and stabbed him "two or three times", a jury at the city’s crown court heard.

Kane Hull, 29, and 33-year-old Liam Porter deny murder and manslaughter.

On day three of the trial, the court heard from two brothers and a young woman who were friends of Mr Kirkpatrick, and who at Carlyle’s Court socialising on the evening when the fatal knife attack happened.

Chloe Bowman said Mr Kirkpatrick was a friend, but she had known of Kane Hull for about two years. Recalling the events of September 18 last year, she said she arrived at Carlyle’s Court at around 8.30pm.

Before the attack, she said, Mr Kirkpatrick had spoken to friends about an earlier incident there involving Kane Hull. “He said he’d had a fight with Kane Hull and won, basically… He was telling a few of us, not just myself.”

Describing the stabbing, Miss Bowman said she was sitting at a bench outside the Mamoa Bar, about three metres from where Mr Kirkpatrick was standing, chatting to his friends. “I just saw Kane Hull enter the Court and stab Ryan.”

Questioned by prosecutor Tim Evans about what the attacker was wearing, she said he had a dark tracksuit on and a balaclava over his face.

She was in shock and could see that Mr Kirkpatrick was bleeding.

Questioned further, she said: “Kane had the intention to go back to Ryan. I could recognise him anyways from what he looked like, his eyes. I could tell it was him from his eyes, from his build.”

Under questioning for Toby Hedworth KC, for Hull, Miss Bowman accepted that she was drunk, having had two bottles of wine at home and three cocktails when she was socialising at Carlyle’s Court.

“But I still remember what happened,” she said.

The attack was “very, very fast,” she told the jury, adding: “He told him he was coming back; his intention was to come back anyway. When he turned up, we knew that it was him. It’s not going to be someone else, is it?”

Mr Hedworth responded to that with: “You can’t identify a person with only their eyes showing; you are coming to the conclusion that whoever had trouble with Ryan the first time, it’s the same person who has come back.”

Miss Bowman replied: “Yes.”

The jury then heard from brothers Owen and Shae Kenyon, who had been to a Christening with Mr Kirkpatrick earlier that day and were out with him at Carlyle’s Court throughout the evening.

They saw both the earlier incident, when Hull and Porter admit being at the scene, and the fatal stabbing, when both defendants deny being present.

Owen Kenyon said he had known Mr Kirkpatrick for more than a decade. Outlining what he saw earlier in the evening when Kane Hull allegedly tried to assault Mr Kirkpatrick with a glass, Mr Kenyon said the defendant “chased” his friend.

Hull punched Mr Kirkpatrick in the face.

Asked what Mr Kirkpatrick was doing during this encounter, Mr Kenyon said: “He was just trying to evade; he was just trying to protect himself.” He went on: “There was that many people trying to stop it, it just fizzled out.”

He then saw Hull walk out of Carlyle’s Court and drive away with Liam Porter in a blue Volvo car, he said. It was ten or twelve minutes later that a masked man returned armed with a knife.

The man delivered a first blow, there was an exchange of words, and then the man stabbed Mr Kirkpatrick’s chest area. “Can you help us with the build of that person?” asked prosecutor Kim Whittlestone. Mr Kenyon replied: “Small, stocky. He had the exact same build as Kane had in the first attack.”

The jury then heard evidence from Shae Kenyon. He said he had known Ryan Kirkpatrick for most his life and their families were close.

Asked about the earlier incident in Carlyle’s Court, he said Mr Fitzpatrick and his friends had talked about whether they should stay there. “We were talking about going. Ryan didn’t want to go. He just said stay.

“A few of the lads wanted to leave.” Recalling the fatal knife attack, Mr Kenyon said he saw a shorter male come into Carlyle’s Court, with a six-inch long knife, which he used to stab Mr Kirkpatrick in the torso area.

Replying to a question about how many times Mr Kirkpatrick was stabbed, Mr Kenyon said: More than once. Two or three times. Very quick.” Mr Kenyon used a waistcoat to put pressure on his friend’s wound, staying with him until the police arrived.

He saw the backs of two men in dark clothing as they ran out of Carlyle's Court after the stabbling, he said.

Mr Hedworth said: “All you can see is that whoever it was who stabbed Ryan had dark clothing on, a black balaclava.”

This was to prevent people seeing the person’s face, said the barrister. In terms of being able to give a description, said Mr Hedworth, it was hard to go beyond that description.

“It depends what you mean,” said Mr Kenyon. He said the two males in Carlyle’s Court during the first incident had the same build and height as the men involved in the second stabbing attack.

Mr Hedworth asked Mr Kenyon whether he was trying to help his friend, suggesting that he felt a moral responsibility to do this. The witness replied: “I am just here to tell what I saw; I am just here to tell the truth.”

Hull's address has previously been given as Bower Street, Carlisle; and Porter's as Fulmar Place, Carlisle.

The trial continues.