A DRUG debt led to a man accused of murder being stripped naked and left on Pendennis Point as punishment for losing his stash, Truro Crown Court has heard

On the first day of his defence case, Kane Coggin, aged 27, told the court that he had been “set up”, by the dealers and had got into debt over his and his girlfriend’s drug use.

Liam Bastow and Kane Coggin from Mylor Bridge are both charged with murdering Falmouth man Aaron Pill on May 4 this year.

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

Under questioning from his defence barrister Richard Lloyd Smith QC, Coggin said in December last he had been grabbed by the gang and stripped naked and left on the street.

He told the court that he had lost a job at a bakery because people had come round to threaten him

He had lost his flat because he was unable to pay his rent and had been forced to move back in with his mother in Mylor Bridge.

He said he was a regular user of cannabis and his girlfriend had a coke habit and he had fallen into debt with drug dealer and he had worked for them to pay it off.

“I had no choice,” he said.

In December they had stripped him of his clothes and left him at Pendennis Point after some drugs had gone missing.

He said he felt depressed and anxious felt like he was hidden away and couldn’t do anything.

“I just stayed at home because I felt they were looking for me and if they found me it was going to be a big problem,” he said.

He said the plan to rob Mr Pill was so he could get some money so he could get out of debt with these people so that they would stop looking for him.

He said he hardly knew Mr Bastow, who was his sister’s boyfriend, and they never went out together.

When he went to his sister’s house where Bastow was, he had told him about his argument over the telephone with Pill and they hatched a plan to rob him of cannabis and cash.

He said he didn’t know Mr Pill but Bastow had told him he was a ‘big drug dealer’ in Falmouth.

He said the robbery was Bastow’s idea. He said he agreed to it as he was having money problems himself.

He accepts that he was the person carrying the knife but said he did not deliberately injure Mr Pill. Said his intention had been to rob Mr Pill of cash and cannabis.

He had only taken the knife to scare him.

He said he lied in his police interview because he was scared of the consequences for himself and trying to get himself out of it.

At the time he swore in his father’s grave that he was telling the truth but in court admitted that he was telling a ‘pack of lies’.

“I am disgusted, it was stupid. I cannot describe the feelings going through my mind about this,” he said.

The trial continues.