Day three of the murder trial following the death of Radstock teenager Charley Bates, has seen his friend repeatedly questioned about whether another knife was brought to the incident.

The best friend of Charley, known to his friendship group as Char, was repeatedly questioned by the defence counsel at Bristol Crown Court and asked whether he was carrying a knife when a fight broke out in the car park behind the library in Radstock on July 31 last year.

Giving evidence to the court, the witness said he was out with his friends for what he described as a normal meet up, when a fight had broken out. He had stepped back from that fight and said that Joshua Delbono, who he knew, had jabbed out and stabbed Char in the heart.

Earlier he said that there were more people involved and it was confusing to follow what had happened : "Everyone was just shouting, it was heated... I knew for a fact there were at least four of them," he said. Giving evidence in person to the court, he denied being a gangster and repeatedly denied carrying a knife.

On the video evidence he said that it was usual for Char to carry around a knife, but that on that day, a hunting knife in his friend's bag had remained stowed away inside that bag and away from the fight scene.

The teenager, who cannot be identified because of his age, said he had seen a weapon, carried by the defendant, and said it was a jab saw, around seven inches long, coloured orange and serrated.

When he opened the case for the prosecution, Adam Vaitilingam KC said that following the fight, Delbono had driven off to Shearwater Lake, about half an hour's drive from Radstock, where he had got rid of the knife that he had used to stab Charley. He is also alleged to have burned some of his clothes, because they had blood on them.

Previously the court had been told that the dispute between the two sides in Radstock had been around a £30 drug debt, while a second witness said the row had been about a debt, although he was not sure "who owed money to who." He told police that it had started as a one on one fight, calling it a 'fair fight ' between Char and one other person who had arrived in one of two cars at the car park.

He described the fighting as over in just a few minutes, adding that he hadn't seen any knife and he thought that Char had fallen face down because he had been punched.

The trial continues.

Joshua Delbono of Frome has pleaded not guilty to murder of Charley Bates on July 31 2022 at The Street in Radstock.