A MAN was stabbed to death in a Skipton park after challenging a teenage drugs runner about trying to sell “sniff” to a boy aged 14, a jury heard today.

Brooklyn Bell, 19, of Parkwood Rise, Keighley, denies murdering Simon McMinn in Aireville Park on July 28 last year.

John Elvidge QC, for the Crown, told Bradford Crown Court that Bell was dealing drugs and Mr McMinn, 44, challenged him about attempting to sell them to teenagers.

In the confrontation, Bell stabbed him three times causing “catastrophic injuries,” it is alleged.

Shortly before 8pm that evening, a 999 call was made reporting the incident in the park, the jury was told.

An old friend of Mr McMinn, Liam Brennan, made the call after he had bought drugs from Bell.

Paramedics did their best to save Mr McMinn who was transported to Airedale Hospital but pronounced dead from his injuries.

Mr Brennan, a user of heroin and cocaine, had been receiving “adverts” from a drugs line, Mr Elvidge said. One number was attributed to Bell, who was a “runner” selling Class A drugs, the jury was told.

Mr Brennan had met Bell a few times in Skipton before the alleged murder to buy heroin from him, it was stated.

The jury was told that Bell travelled to Skipton from Keighley by train to sell the drugs.

CCTV footage shown in court showed him walking from Skipton Railway Station to Aireville Park.

Mr Elvidge said a boy aged 14 was approached by a man matching Bell’s description who asked if he wanted “sniff” and he said no. But Mr McMinn found out about it and was angry.

He and Mr Brennan found Bell in the park and they all walked into the woods together. Brennan bought drugs but then Mr McMinn challenged Bell about him approaching the teenager.

That led to Mr McMinn being stabbed three times, once in the shoulder and twice in the back, Mr Elvidge said.

The court was shown film of a tent covering the area where he collapsed.

Mr McMinn told Mr Brennan he had been stabbed and asked for an ambulance. The jury was told they would hear that call played in the courtroom in course of the trial.

When the police arrived, Mr Brennan did not tell them he had illegal drugs on him. He wrongly said they had been strolling in the woods and been “attacked out of the blue.”

He then told the police about crack cocaine and heroin he had bought from Bell.

Bell was seen on CCTV running from the park just before 8pm.

The jury heard he jumped into a taxi and told the driver to “hurry up and take him to Keighley.”

He was slumped in his seat on the journey and dropped off at flats in Parkwood Rise where he lived with a relative.

Mr Elvidge said Bell stopped using his phone within an hour of the stabbing.

The next day he took a train to Huddersfield where he had family connections. He hand-ed himself in a few days later. The jury was told he cut his braided hair before he went to the police station.

He was medic ally examined and bore no injuries.

Bell chose not to answer any questions from the police.

Mr Elvidge said the evidence showed it was Bell who was responsible for the stabbing. A balaclava found by the police at the scene was a DNA match for him, it is alleged.

Mr McMinn had suffered three penetrating stab wounds. The blood loss would have started immediately and the wounds were consistent with the use of a knife, the jury was told.

There were no defence injuries and there was no way of knowing which order the wounds were inflicted in.

Mr Elvidge said Bell had earlier pleaded guilty to an offence of wounding with intent on the south coast. A stranger was stabbed three times but survived the attack.

Bell was arrested for that offence at Manchester Airport. On his phone were rap-style lines, including one celebrating the stabbing in Bournemouth, the jury was told.

The defence accepted that Bell had killed Mr McMinn but he denied acting unlawfully or intending to cause him really serious harm.

The trial continues.