THE Lee Monaghan murder trial has heard how a Good Samaritan was attacked as he desperately tried to drag his gravely injured 23-year-old neighbour to safety.

The man, a neighbour of the deceased, was headbutted at the scene in Belville Street, knocking both him and his wounded friend to the ground.

A High Court jury heard how the impact caused blood to burst out of the leg of Lee’s trousers where it had gathered.

The witness said both he and Mr Monaghan were left covered in blood and he had to wipe it out of his eyes before he could see.

He told the court that he had heard the sound of running footsteps followed by Lee screaming: ‘It wisnae me!’ just before he looked out his house window and saw his neighbour prone on the ground.

The man said he had rushed outside and cradled Lee’s head in his arm, trying to get him to talk.

He told the court : “He wouldn’t talk back.

“He was making groaning noises but he wasn’t doing anything else.

“His eyes were closed as well

“There was a hole in part of his top, I quickly lifted his top up to see but I couldn’t see a wound.

“It looked like one of his trouser legs was filling up with blood.

“I stuck my hands under his armpits and pulled him up. 

“His shoes were scraping the floor.

“As I was dragging him back down to my close somebody headbutted us.

“I kind of fell and all the blood came up and hit us. 

“It was all over us.

“It spread everywhere, I couldn’t see.

“It was in my eyes.”

The witness said he finally managed to get Lee into the close and prop him against his leg, adding: “I tried to hear if he was breathing or anything. Eventually he let out a big sigh.

“He never ever spoke.

“I thought that was him died.

“He kind of went.”

Stephen Kane, 21, whose address was given as Polmont Young Offenders Institution near Falkirk, is accused of pursuing and murdering Lee by repeatedly striking him on the body with a knife or knives on 24 August 2016, alongside a raft of other charges.

He denies all of them and the trial, before Lord Clark, continues.