ONE of the accused in the Simon Everitt murder trial confessed to the precise way in which he tortured and killed the 17-year-old, a court heard yesterday.

Martin Lakin, former boyfriend of defendant Maria Chandler, described how he visited her the day after Mr Everitt, originally from Escomb, near Bishop Auckland, disappeared in June last year.

Co-accused Jonathan “Munch” Clarke was cleaning her car at her home in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. When he asked Chandler what was happening, she replied: “You don’t want to know, ask Munch.”

When Mr Lakin confronted Clarke, the 19-year-old said: “If I tell you, you will be involved in it.”

Mr Everitt had moved to Yarmouth four years earlier and Norwich Crown Court has already heard how the engineering student, Clarke and the third defendant, Jimi-Lee Stewart, had fallen out after they all dated the same girl, Fiona Statham.

Mr Lakin told the jury: “He [Clarke] said Simon was on his bike with Jimi. They got as far as a layby and Jimi hit Simon with something.

“Jimi and Munch put him in the car and drove off. Maria was driving to somewhere in the woods outside Yarmouth.

“When they got there, Maria was told to stay in the car.

Simon asked Munch ‘are you going to kill me?’ and Munch didn’t answer. He said they tied him to a tree.

“They were asking if Simon was still going with Fiona after Jimi was going out with her. Simon owned up to it.

“Jimi poured petrol all over Simon and made him drink it.

Munch said he struck a match.

“I looked at him as he was telling me this. It was like he had no care in the world.

“Munch said the rope he tied him up with burnt and Simon fell down onto his front,” Mr Lakin said.

Jurors have already heard that Mr Everitt’s body was found dumped in a swamp near Mautby woods, outside Yarmouth. A post-mortem suggested he had been tied to a tree, doused in petrol and set on fire.

Clarke, from Telford, Stewart, 25, and Chandler, 40, both of Yarmouth, all deny murder.

The trial continues.