Robber said he was dying, jury told

The "commander in chief" of a gang of lorry-jackers told his accomplices he was dying and cried for help after being stabbed by a trucker they were robbing, a jury heard.

Dean Skidmore, who was 36 and from Brierley Hill, died of massive blood loss after being stabbed in the groin by Vasilius Nikolakopoulos.

At Warwick Crown Court yesterday, the jury was told about the frantic 999 call made by the only uninjured member of the four-strong gang.

Danny White made the call as the gang raced from the scene of the botched raid outside International Forwarding Ltd in Coleshill to Sandwell General Hospital in a Subaru Impreza.

The court heard that while medics tried unsuccessfully to save Mr Skidmore's life, White took incriminating items from the car and hid them in bushes.

Spencer Howell, aged 35, of Bassett Road, Wednesbury and a Brierley Hill teenager who was 15 at the time and is now 17, were also wounded in the chest following the incident on February 26 last year at 6.30am.

Howell, the youth and White, aged 19 of Biddings Lane, Bilston, have admitted conspiring to steal from lorries, but deny conspiring to rob the drivers and assaulting Mr Nikolakopoulos with intent to rob.

The jury heard that as the gang raced to hospital, White called the ambulance service.

In a frantic and confused call, he said: "Me mates have been stabbed. All three of them have been stabbed, all three of them, and one of them's out.

"He's been stabbed in the leg. We're on the motorway. We're going towards — I don't know."

He repeatedly said they were heading south, before the operator established they were actually going north, the court was told.

They then got cut off and when the ambulance operator got back in touch, they were arriving at Sandwell Hospital.

When he was later arrested and interviewed, White said that he was asleep in his van, where he was staying after an argument with his father, at around midnight when Mr Skidmore knocked on his door.

He said he was woken by Skidmore who told him they were going for "a bit of a mess or tickle", so he got into the Subaru with the others.

He said the lorry driver had first been punching Howell, who went to the ground, and then stabbed the teenager before Skidmore grabbed him in a headlock and was stabbed in the leg.

He added: "They ran back to the car saying 'go, go' Dean said he was dying and asked for help."

In his interview, the 17-year-old said he had gone along with the others for a ride but did not want to take part but Skidmore told him he would be OK.

The trial continues on Monday.