A MAN accused of murder told his brother, “He won’t be messing with us again” as his alleged victim lay dying in the street, a jury has heard.

Stephen Kane’s brother Christopher, 23, said he told his younger sibling to run away from the scene in Greenock’s Belville Street in a bid to ‘protect’ him.

Earlier, he said, he had caught 23-year-old Lee Monaghan, 23, – the man who died – vandalising a neighbour’s flat in the stilt block where he lived .

During the evening, he said, Lee came to his door and asked for a cigarette but he sent him away empty-handed.

A short time afterwards someone smashed the passenger window of his Skoda.

He told the jury: “I assumed that it was Lee because I previously made him angry at me for not giving him a cigarette and catching him in the act of vandalising that flat.

“I contacted the police as soon as I saw it and told them who I thought had done it.

“Then I went to Lee’s home because I was angry.

“I saw Lee’s mum (Sandra Monaghan).

“I said ‘he’s smashed my car window and I’ll be waiting for him’.

“I was going to assault him, just punch him.

“I went back up and apologised to Sandra for the threat afterwards.

“We discussed it and she said she would pay for the damages.” 

Continuing, Mr Kane said that around 11pm that night he heard loud banging on his door and answered it to find it was Lee’s mother.

He said: “She was distraught. I went out into the street and ran down the lane where she was looking. I saw a figure and ran towards it. It was Stephen.” 

Speaking through tears, he told the jury: “He seemed angry, because of what had happened with my car. He just said something like: ‘He won’t be messing with us again’.

“I assumed that he’d assaulted him, Lee.

“He’d done what he’d done.”

He added: “I was really angry with him. I was disappointed that he’d done something so stupid. 

“I assumed that he’d assaulted Lee or something. I didn’t see any weapons on him.

“I told him: ‘Run away, Stiv’ to protect him. I told him just to go home.”

The witness said that as he walked back to his flat, he said he saw Lee being carried ‘like a drunk person’. 

He said it didn’t cross his mind that Lee might be hurt until he ran into the man carrying him. 

He said: “I attempted to headbutt him because there was just so much adrenaline. I wasn’t thinking.

“They both fell. There was a huge globule of blood. It came from Lee. It landed on my left side. 

“I just thought I had to help him. I ran in the house grabbed my phone and called the ambulance then I ran back and started giving Lee CPR and mouth to mouth until the ambulance arrived.”

In other evidence yesterday a woman told of the ‘traumatising’ battle to save Lee’s life at the scene. 

The witness, 20, dialled 999 for an ambulance as her boyfriend dragged Lee back to the safety of their block of flats.

The jury at the High Court in Livingston heard a recording of the emergency call with the witness asking for ambulance ‘right away please’. 

She adds: “It’s a boy that’s been stabbed.”

She then tells the call handler ‘blood has been dragged right across the floor and I really don’t think he’s got long’.

The witness was also heard relaying instructions to give Lee CPR before handing the phone to his desperate mum as she watches her son die in front of her.

The jury was told paramedics arrived to treat Lee a few minutes later at about 11.20pm but he was beyond recovery.

Stephen Kane is accused of pursuing and murdering Lee by repeatedly striking him on the body with a knife or knives, along with a raft of other charges.

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