ONE of the defendants on trial for the murder of student Lloyd Fouracre was described as "evil"

after the alleged attack as he said that the victim would end up in a coffin.

Exeter Crown Court heard how Andrew Betty was branded "evil" by co-accused Ross McCormack when a girl heard them talking at a flat in Taunton.

Richard Huish College student Lloyd, of Broomfield, died in hospital about 30 minutes after the incident in Taunton on September 25 last year the eve of his 18th birthday.

Nineteen-year-olds Betty, of Priorswood Road, Taunton, Jay Wall, of St David's Close, Taunton, and McCormack, of Pyrland Avenue, Taunton, have all denied his murder.

After the alleged attack the defendants went to a Taunton flat where a female occupant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, overheard them talking.

She told the jury that she heard McCormack say: "Betty whacked a kid with a sign" and Betty reply: "It was a plank of wood."

McCormack then said: "What happens if the kid is in intensive care," to which Betty replied in a "cold" manner: "I couldn't give a s❊❊❊".

The witness said she then played an Oasis music video in which a coffin featured.

"Betty pointed to the telly and said that's what that kid's going to be in," the witness told the jury, adding that McCormack then said of Betty: "He's evil."

The witness said she spoke to Betty about the possibility of being arrested the next day, to which he replied "I don't give a s❊❊❊, I will not be here."

She heard McCormack say that when the alleged attack took place he had been going to walk off, when he saw Betty being kicked in the rib area.

He had said he used a bicycle seat to "whack the kid that was kicking Betty," said the witness.

When the bicycle seat was washed, McCormack said the water was red and running off "like blood,"

the witness told the jury.

Cross-examined by Betty's defence counsel, Paul Dunkels QC, the witness said McCormack was usually quiet and she had never known him get into any trouble.

He seemed concerned, "shocked and stunned,"

at what had happened, she said.

"It sounded like he was helping out a mate who was getting kicked," she said.

Liam Purdie, a friend of the defendants, had also been at the flat when McCormack arrived at about 1am, and told the court McCormack was "hysterical"

when he arrived and said that there had been a fight.

Mr Purdie said: "He McCormack was white like he'd seen a ghost and had sweat pouring off his face.

"He said that there had been a fight after a boy grabbed Jay Wall by the throat, and Andrew Betty had hit him over the head with a sign, so he was lying unconscious on the floor.

"He was upset. There were tears in his eyes and he was shaking."

When asked by Martin Meeke QC, prosecuting, about Betty's demeanour, Mr Purdie replied: "He wasn't concerned. He was normal he was laughing."

Mr Purdie said Betty's clothing was "different" to when he saw him out drinking in the afternoon.

He said Betty was wearing light jeans when he arrived at the flat rather than the dark pair he was wearing hours earlier, and had changed his top.

Under cross-examination Mr Dunkels asked Mr Purdie if he could be sure the defendant had changed his clothes or whether he might have been mistaken.

Mr Purdie replied: "I can remember he was wearing different clothes."