Solomon Robinson murder: One suspect threatened others with violence if they didn’t 'sort it', claims his co-defendant

Michelle Greenwood said a group of people were milling around the scene where Mr Robinson lay in a pool of blood, gasping for air, after being stabbed in the gardens outside Scarborough Town Hall.

“He was on his back, agitated,” said Ms Greenwood.

“His friends were trying to calm him down. I found a stab wound in the lower-back area. There was also a large amount of blood, both in the road and on his clothing.

“The wound was between three to four inches in length. This wound was bleeding profusely.”

Mr Robinson, 26, was put on a stretcher and into an ambulance where he was given oxygen due to sheer blood loss and because he was “panicking”.

Ms Greenwood was giving evidence at Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday, in Week Two of the trial of the four suspects Dawid Goral, 21, Callon Brass, 22, Kieran Watkinson, 19, and Stevie Low, 23, who were each charged with murder following the death of Mr Robinson.

A fifth Scarborough man, 19-year-old Stefan Selvage, of Colescliffe Road, has already admitted murder after CCTV footage showed him following Mr Robinson into the park on a bike, before jumping off and plunging a blade into his back.

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PC James Moody was the first officer at the scene after being alerted to the incident by CCTV operators just after 2am on October 20 2019.

He said that when he arrived, there was a “considerable number” of people in St Nicholas and some were shouting.

“Across from the Royal Hotel, on the road outside the entrance to the (town hall) gardens, I saw a number of young adults surrounding a male who was laid on his back on the ground,” PC Moody told the court.

“A female was knelt over (Mr Robinson) applying pressure to the male’s torso with her hands. I heard another female shouting, ‘Get an ambulance, he’s been stabbed’.

“I approached the male and saw that a significant amount of blood had spread over the floor. The group surrounding the male were in a state of distress.”

PC Moody said that Mr Robinson’s grey, hooded top and jeans were “covered in blood”, his breathing was laboured and he had lost consciousness. He began to give him chest compressions until the ambulance arrived.

He said Mr Robinson “murmured something inaudible…and was in and out of consciousness”.

“He tried to raise himself up from the ground on two occasions…before slumping down,” added the officer.

Mr Robinson’s face “gradually became grey and his breathing quickened”.

He was heard to say “Please”, before being moved onto a stretcher and taken to hospital.

Mr Robinson was given emergency surgery but suffered a “catastrophic” loss of blood and died at about 5am - three hours after the stabbing.

The cause of death was found to be “massive” blood loss from a single, 11-inch-deep stab wound which had severed a major artery and almost pierced his entire body.

The five suspects were arrested shortly afterwards but remained largely tight-lipped when questioned by officers and all denied having anything to do with the fatal stabbing.

Watkinson, of Endcliff Crescent, was arrested in Longwestgate at about 5.30am and taken into Scarborough Police Station for questioning.

He told officers that as he and his friends were running away from the scene, Stevie Low warned him that if he “snitched he would stab me”.

Asked by officers why he had placed a latex glove on his hand just before the fatal incident, Watkinson replied: “It wasn’t me who (stabbed) him.”

Watkinson said that Low had been waiting for Mr Robinson and had offered “Stefan (Selvage), me and Callon (Brass) £100 each if we ‘sort it’”.

He said that Low had threatened them with violence if they didn’t “sort it”, alleging that it was Low who had exhorted Selvage to stab Mr Robinson.

“I saw (Stefan Selvage) get on his bike and ‘sort it’,” Mr Watkinson told officers.

The prosecution say that Mr Robinson was the victim of an ambush-style attack after pictures of his Facebook profile had been circulated among the gang at a drug and drink-fuelled party hours before the fatal stabbing.

During the raucous party at a flat on North Marine Road, weapons were brandished including at least two “long-bladed” knives - one thought to be a machete.

Drug paraphernalia was clearly on show including digital weighing scales, lines of cocaine and drugs that had already been bagged up.

Watkinson admitted he was at this party with others including a man from Nottingham who he said was a crack-cocaine dealer.

Goral, who handed himself in, said he was at the scene but he “didn’t see nobody with a knife”.

Low, who also handed himself in, said that Mr Robinson was “my friend” and that he would never have attacked him because he himself had a lost a mate “the same way” when he was in his teens.

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He told officers: “There was about eight of us in town. There (had been) a house party; everyone was drinking, taking drugs, smoking weed, doing what most lads and girls do in Scarborough at the weekend.”

He said that in the moments leading up to the attack - about 20 minutes after they had left the house party - there were lots of young people in the town-hall gardens, “drinking, doing whatever, coming and going from the clubs, doing cocaine and (Ecstasy) and stuff”.

“Everyone was leaving, trying to find a house to go to for an after-party, as they do,” he added.

“There were lots of us in the gardens. There was two different groups…mingling. Probably about eight or nine of us and others I didn’t know, just sniffing from keys - cocaine and stuff.”

Harrowing footage of the incident, which was played in court, showed that at least two of the gang - all wearing dark clothes and hoodies - were wielding long-bladed knives, including a machete.

After being stabbed, Mr Robinson staggered back towards the entrance to the gardens but collapsed on the pavement.

Prosecutor Tahir Khan QC claims that the murder was a “joint attack” which had been planned by the whole group.

The trial continues.