NEITHER of the two men accused of murdering Carlisle man Ryan Kirkpatrick will be giving live evidence in their defence, jurors have been told.

Confirmation that Kane Hull, 29, and Liam Craig Porter, 33, will not be testifying came this afternoon in statements to the court from the men’s defence counsel.

Toby Hedworth KC, for Hull, told the court: “We will not be calling evidence on Mr Hull’s behalf, either from him or from witnesses on his behalf.” Liam Walker, for Porter, said: “On behalf of Mr Porter, we call no evidence.”

Mr Justice Linden, the judge in the case, told both barristers that the jury are entitled to draw “such inferences as may appear proper” from the defendants' failure to testify.

Earlier in the case, the jury spent an hour considering “agreed facts”, including medical evidence which confirmed that Mr Kirkpatrick, 24, who was attacked by a masked man in Carlyle’s Court in the city centre on September 18 last year, sustained stab wounds to his back, his abdomen and his chest.

It was the chest wound that caused his death. A second masked man - said by prosecutors to be Porter - was with the knifeman when he carried out the attack in Carlyle's Court, the jury heard.

Hull, of no fixed address, and Porter, of Fulmar Place, Carlisle, accept being in Carlyle’s Court at 8.31pm on September 18 when there was an incident which involved Hull and Mr Kirkpatrick.

The defendants, however, deny being present some 15 or so minutes later when Mr Kirkpatrick was fatally stabbed.  Mr Hedworth said Hull fled to Ireland because he feared being “wrongly accused” of attacking Mr Kirkpatrick. For a fuller report of today’s trial proceedings, see tomorrow’s News & Star.