LIAM HUNT MURDER TRIAL: 18-year-old accused of murder phoned witnesses from prison and pressured them to change their story, jury told

Prosecutor John Lloyd-Jones told the jury at Northampton Crown Court today (February 8) that Lee Warren had already pleaded guilty to a charge of perverting the cause of justice.

Warren reportedly called key witnesses while in custody and tried to use them to hide his involvement in the killing that he and six other young men are on trial for.

Read the Chronicle & Echo's coverage of the first day of the trial here, where the jury was told how the group found and stabbed Liam out of revenge.

Mr Lloyd-Jones said: "Having been arrested, Warren became aware that his friends and associates had spoken to the police. He tried to put pressure on witnesses to get them to change their account of what had happened.

"Warren had tried to influence and pressure witnesses to weaken the prosecution's case and improve his chances of bail."

On the third day of the trial today, the jury was also told that Warren and his co-defendants Derice Wright, 18, and a 17-year-old boy who cannot be named, were in the McDonald's in the Drapery just 20 minutes after the fatal attack allegedly "bragging about and reenacting" a fight that had just happened.

But when police arrived at the McDonald's, Wright, Warren and the 17-year-old boy reportedly slipped out the restaurant through the fire escape, the prosection said.

Soon after, Warren was caught on CCTV in the Market square "dumping his jacket in a bin and wiping down his trainers", the court was told.

As part of the investigation, police divers later dredged Delapre Abbey lake and recovered a DW sports bag weighted down with three stones. Inside was a pair of jeans belonging to Wright, the court heard.

Mr Lloyd-Jones summed up the prosecution's case by saying: "Attackers, in this case, went armed with knives or had access to knives. They went with intent to cause armed violence and cause serious injury to Liam Hunt.

"Other members of that group went knowing that their friends were armed.

"[The seven men] were all involved and they are all guilty of murder," he said.

The defence barristers for the seven men will set out their cases this afternoon.