3:10am Thursday 11th March 2010
A MOTHER told a jury how her 19-year-old son walked towards her just before he died on Hartlebury Common and revealed he had been stabbed.
Eileen Price said blood was running down her face from a knife wound inflicted by Joe Carpenter after he left her son Shane lying on the ground.
"Shane stood up from where he lay. He was walking towards me, talking to me, " she said yesterday.
"He shouted, mam I've been stabbed. Then he fell and his legs went under him."
She claimed Tracy Carpenter had been holding her by the hair but then let go.
Mrs Price, 42, said: "I was looking at my son, shouting his name. Then Joe stabbed me in the chest."
Shane Price, aged 19, of Broach Road, Stourport, died at the scene on February 13 last year from a stab wound through the heart.
Joe Carpenter, also 19, has pleaded guilty to his murder and admitted wounding Mrs Price.
His parents, car dealer Paul Carpenter, 55, and Tracy Carpenter, 46, both of Park Crescent, Sourport, deny murder and wounding.
Prosecutor Tim Raggatt QC alleged they were part of a joint enterprise to take weapons to the common and harm the Price family after ill-feeling surfaced in phone calls.
Mrs Price told Worcester Crown Court that during a scuffle she fell over and Tracy Carpenter held her by the ankles while Joe knifed her.
She managed to run to the family Land Rover on Wilden Top car park but Joe chased her before she locked the door.
She then got out and claimed the Carpenter family drove towards her and the prone Shane. "I said please don't run him over. The car skidded by Shane's head, then they left."
Anthony Barker QC, defending Tracy Carpenter, suggested the Price family took a number of weapons to the common, which were later disposed of by Mrs Price's husband Frederick senior.
Mr Price, 47, described in court how he wanted to talk to Paul Carpenter at the common - but never got a chance.
He said Paul ran at him with an 18-inch long machete and chased him on Wilden Top car park for 60-70 yards.
He recalled a blow to his left shoulder, then cut his finger as he tried to grab the blade.
Andrew O'Byrne QC, for Paul Carpenter, said when police questioned Mr Price a few days later about a baton found at the murder scene which belonged to Shane he "denied any knowledge of it".
Mr Price said he knew Shane kept a baton at home but didn't see him take it to the common.
The trial continues.
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