A FAMILY gathering after a teenager died in a cliff fall ended in two people being stabbed to death in the street, a trial has heard.

The disturbance broke out as relatives of 18-year-old Ralph Smith came together to comfort the boy’s mother following the youngster’s death in February in Arbroath. Robert Stratton, 43, stabbed Julie McCash, 42, in a Dundee street after his wife Lee Mary Kinney and another woman, Wendy McKinney, 44, were asked to leave.

It followed a row between Ms McKinney, and Mr Stratton’s wife Lee Mary Kinney which led to the two women being asked to leave the gathering, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.

Mr Stratton, of Dundee, denies the murders of Ms McCash and David Sorrie, 32, and other charges.

Jurors have been told the prosecution and defence in the case have agreed Mr Stratton carried out the stabbings. Mr Stratton’s legal team has lodged special defences of incrimination and self-defence.

Darren Wallace, 25, told the first day of the trial he initially thought Ms McCash had been punched by Mr Stratton, before she told him she had been stabbed.

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after she collapsed on the pavement, he ran back intothe house shouting to the others inside about the stabbing, adding that then the “whole house came running out”.

Mr Wallace added: “She slumped to the ground. I shouted ‘help Julie’s been stabbed’.

“Everybody was just frantic trying to find out what was going on.”

Mr Wallace’s mother is Wendy McKinney. She told the court Lee Mary Kinney started arguing with her at the get-together, but she did not know what it was about.

Ms McKinney, who had earlier taken cocaine and been drinking, said she and Mr Sorrie ran out and saw Mr Stratton brandishing knives.

She said: “He [Mr Stratton] was standing on his own. He had two knives, swinging them.” She said she tried to resuscitate Ms McCash.

The trial, before Lord Beckett continues.