A MAN has gone on trial accused of unlawfully killing another man who died six days after he was allegedly punched in the ribs during a row over a debt.

39-year-old Lewis Knight, is on trial at Carlisle Crown Court accused of the manslaughter of Marc Wright in March 2021. 

Carlisle Crown Court heard today (monday) how drug addict Marc Wright collapsed at his mother’s home in West Cumbria on 28th March, 2021.

An ambulance was called and 39-year-old Mr Wright was taken to hospital, where he died shortly after arrival.

A post mortem concluded that a ruptured spleen had caused internal bleeding. The spleen had been ruptured — or torn — by a broken rib which, a pathologist concluded, had occurred within the preceding four to seven days.

Exactly what caused the fracture, a jury heard, was the crux of a criminal case involving 31-year-old Lewis Knight, who is on trial accused of Mr Wright’s manslaughter.

“The prosecution say that the defendant unlawfully punched Marc Wright in the ribs on the 22nd March, 2021, six days before his collapse and death,” said Kim Whittlestone, prosecuting.

In evidence this afternoon, Mr Wright’s mother, Janice, told how she cared daily for her son, who had struggled with a drug addiction and received a daily methadone script to ease heroin craving. He confided in her and the pair spoke seven or eight times every day.

At around noon on 22nd March, she received a phone call from her son, who lived alone in Whitehaven.

He was “frantic”, she told jurors, and said he needed £100 to pay Knight — an associate whom she knew and whose voice she recognised.

Knight then spoke during the call. “He was aggressive on the phone,” said Mr Wright’s mother. “He said he wanted his f***ing money or he was going to f***ing kill him.”

In a phone recording played to the court, his mother had told Knight: “Don’t threaten me and don’t threaten him.”

She borrowed money from her sister and later went to her son’s home. He was “frantic and very frightened”. Knight was present and “very aggressive”. She handed him £100 and left.

She next saw her son the following morning before they travelled to a pharmacy. “When he got in the car he said ‘my ribs are sore, mam’,” Mr Wright’s mother told the jury.

“I asked why his ribs were sore and he said ‘because Lewis punched me yesterday’.”

Mr Wright continued to complain about sore ribs later that week.

And on Saturday, 27th March, he went to bed at his mother’s house before using the toilet.

“He didn’t sound right,” she recalled, tearfully. “He said ‘I don’t feel very well, mam’. And then he passed out.” That was when an ambulance was called.

Mr Wright, she added, had also reported being given a black eye by a different man a fortnight before the alleged assault by Knight.

“Had your son complained about his ribs?” asked Miss Whittlestone of that earlier assault by the other man.

“No,” replied Mr Wright’s mother.

Knight, of Beach Road, St Bees, denies a charge of manslaughter and the trial continues.