TWO men accused of the murder of Aaron Pill set out jointly to inflict serious injury on their victim in a 'ferocious attack', Truro Crown Court has heard.

Liam Bastow and Kane Coggin from Mylor Bridge are both charged with murdering Falmouth man Mr Pill at his home in Tresawle Road May 4 this year.

Coggin, 27, of Meadowbank and Bastow, aged 24, of Avalon Close have admitted manslaughter but deny murder.

The court was adjourned yesterday after one of Bastow's cellmates tested positive for Covid.

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Pair launched 'ferocious attack' and intended serious harm, court told

In his closing statement to the jury on the penultimate day of the trial, prosecutor Adam Feest QC said by far and away the most truthful and accurate thing either Bastow or Kane Coggin had said was when Bastow said in his first interview: 'The only reason you carry knives is to f****g hurt people with them.'

He said this was a 'ferocious joint attack' by the two men. "Together and in concert they attacked Aaron Pill in his own home," he said. "You have seen first hand the ferocity of that attack perpetrated by the defendants against their victim as soon as he opened the door, a door he'd been deceived into opening by the man that he might recognise lurking in the dark outside that garden gate.

"Whilst his accomplice strolled casually up the garden path. Unknown and unseen by Mr Pill inside the house, you know that the knife that was to kill him moments later had already been taken out of Kane Coggin's sock, if indeed that was where it was. This act must have been seen by Mr Bastow as the two men stood there outside that gate making their final plans and it would not have been a surprise to Mr Bastow to see that knife.

"They had planned to take a weapon or weapons with them that night they had talked about it and planned it a few hours earlier. It was an attack that both defendants took a full part in, Kane Coggin crashing through the door and Liam Bastow joining him without hesitation. How fast he must have run up that garden path. There was no attempt by either of them to scare Aaron Pill or threaten Aaron Pill, as Kane Coggin would have you believe the plan was."

He said violence was handed out by them both at the first opportunity they had and it only stopped when Aaron Pill was on the floor his two attackers standing over him about to shut the door. "By this time in reality Aaron Pill was effectively already a dead man," said Mr Feest. "The non-survival injury having been inflicted in that short outburst of violence. One man wielding the knife while the other unhesitatingly and deliberately used what violence he could with his fists and legs."

Mr Feest said the pair lied and were in complete control of what they were doing. He said Bastow lied about his PTSD and showed no surprise about Mr Pill being stabbed just a casual question 'Have you stabbed him?'

He said both Coggin and Bastow murdered Mr Pill after an argument turned angry and aggressive on both sides.

He said what is clear is Bastow's "unbridled aggression" from the moment he comes through that door.

"On the fourth of May Aaron Pill was killed in his own home by these defendants," said Mr Feest. "These two defendants acting jointly and in concert set out that night to do exactly what it was in fact they did do, inflict serious violence on Mr Pill."

The jury, which is now down to 11 members because one could not continue their service into next week, returns for final summing up on Monday.