A former warehouse worker helped a knifeman by driving him away from the scene of a vicious stabbing and hiding his coat for him.
Nathan Corlett, 26, of Wellingford Avenue, Widnes, appeared before Liverpool Crown Court on Monday for sentencing. He previously pleaded guilty to one count of assisting an offender.
Henry Riding, prosecuting, said on December 20, at around 1am, Corlett drove from Widnes to Warrington in order to pick up Lee Ashton. Just over an hour earlier, Ashton had knifed Robert Bassnett, who was in a relationship with Ashton's ex-partner, the Liverpool Echo reports.
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Mr Bassnett was left staggering and searching for help while the blade was lodged into his back, eventually collapsing in the road before being found by a passing ambulance. Mr Riding added that Corlett dropped off Ashton at the Holiday Inn, Runcorn, before taking a bag which contained Ashton's coat and possible other clothes with forensic clues on them.
Despite this, police were able to collect footage from automatic number plate recognition cameras which caught Corlett's car driving to Warrington and Runcorn, as well as gathering phone evidence. Mr Riding said phone messages sent in the days after the stabbing implicated Corlett's role.
One of the messages said: “Bro I should have burned it, you’ve roped me in on a charge.”
Another said “I’ll grab it when this has all blown over”, and another example said: “F***ing risking a charge, I’ve done you a favour getting rid of them”.
Other messages suggested the bag of clothes had been thrown in the river, causing Ashton to “complain it had cost £200” in reference to his coat, before Corlett “confessed to Mr Ashton he had placed the items behind a bin at someone else’s address.”
In a police interview on April 8 last year, Corlett initially denied his involvement in the incident, however, he retracted this after being confronted with ANPR footage. Corlett admitted to agreeing to take Ashton to a hotel and claimed it was only after Ashton took off his coat, bagged it, and told him to "keep it" that he “panicked and realised something must have been illegal”.
Mr Rider said the Crown didn’t accept the claims and there was no basis of plea. The coat was never found by investigators. Corlett had one previous conviction for a driving matter that occurred after December 2021, plus a caution for threatening behaviour from 2020.
He later pleaded guilty to one count of assisting an offender over helping Ashton.
Lloyd Morgan, defending, pleaded mitigation for father-of-two Corlett’s guilty plea and “remorse”, and argued Corlett was a “young man” who was suitable for a suspended sentence due to his “realistic prospect of rehabilitation”, responsibilities as a father of two with weekend custody and daily contact, and having previously been in employment and now only out of work due to “stress and anxiety”.
Judge David Potter, who previously dealt with Ashton in court, sentenced Corlett to 12 months in prison to be served immediately.
Recounting the attack by Ashton on Mr Bassnett, he said: “Robert Bassnett was walking from his friend’s house in Warrington when he was set upon by a group of at least three men, who lay in wait for Mr Bassnett and were all armed with knives.
“Mr Bassnett was chased from the initial confrontation onto the main road where he ran literally for his life. The attacking group caught up with him and during the course of the attack which followed he was stabbed in the back.”
He added: “He ran away with the knife still sticking in his back.”
Judge Potter said that although there was other evidence against Lee Ashton, Corlett hiding the coat had caused a “delay” in “bringing Lee Ashton to justice”.
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