A mum has detailed her desperate attempts to save a man's life as he asked her 'am I dying?' before he bled to death.
Jordan Brophy asked Jennifer Burns the devastating question while she tried to stem blood coming from wounds on his head, neck and arm.
In 2021, Mr Brophy was attacked in Halewood on October 29 and prosecutors claim that it was 'revenge or punishment' for a burglary attempt on a house, Cheshire Live reports.
Half siblings Karl Townsend and Jamie Cunningham are currently on trial for his murder at Liverpool Crown Court.
The half brothers allegedly armed themselves with knives after being alerted by Ring doorbell to a break-in at Townsend's home in Halewood.
Prosecutors say they rushed to the address and confronted the intruders. Townsend is said to have stabbed Mr Brophy in the head and arm, before twice knifing him in the face. One stab wound went through his left optic nerve, leaving a broken blade embedded in his brain.
Liverpool Crown Court has heard Townsend and Cunningham left the scene, but then returned, when Townsend allegedly stabbed the "defenceless" 31-year-old in his jugular vein "out of revenge or punishment". Richard Pratt, QC, prosecuting, has said Townsend does not dispute causing Mr Brophy's death but denies murder.
Today, the jury heard from neighbours who witnessed that final alleged attack on Brophy in the street. Prosecutors say this was the moment Townsend inflicted the blow to his jugular. Jennifer Burns was in her home nearby cooking tea for her children when one of them told her there was a fight going on outside.
She and her children went outside to see a scuffle taking place on the other side of the road and then ran over to help Mr Brophy afterwards. Members of Mr Brophy’s family who were watching from the public gallery wept as Ms Burns, speaking in a police interview after the incident, described the harrowing scene.
She said: “At that point he was on the floor and there was just blood. He was covered in blood. I just leant down to try and help him. He was just covered in blood. I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. You could see it, you could see it in his eyes. It was like a horror film.”
Ms Burns said: “I asked the kids to get towels. They brought a small towel so I asked them for more and they brought bigger ones out and we applied them to his head. He was just saying ‘am I dying, am I dying’.”
Ms Burns said she tried to reassure Mr Brophy that an ambulance was on its way but he soon lost consciousness. He was given CPR but died shortly afterwards.
Another neighbour, Rachel Blaney, also saw the scuffle from outside her home. Ms Blaney said she could not see a knife but believed Brophy was either being punched or stabbed. She said: “I do not know whether he was stabbing him or beating the hell out of him.
Neither Ms Blaney nor Ms Burns said they knew the man who allegedly attacked Mr Brophy, but Ms Blaney said she later heard someone else call him Karl and Ms Burns said she believed he lived further up the street.
The jury will hear further evidence from the prosecution in the coming days, while the defence is yet to open their case.
The trial continues.
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