IF you don't stop crying the beatings will get worse.

That's what a gang accused of murdering 22-year-old Jamie Dack allegedly told him as they unleashed a vicious beating on him at a Southampton flat.

The words were told to police by Mel Stevens during interview in the days after Jamie's badly burnt body was discovered in a wheelie bin, which had been set alight with petrol inside an industrial bin in Empress Road.

Miss Stevens was interviewed about the conversation she had had with a girl called Amber Patterson - a friend of Jamie's who was at the flat on the night before Good Friday this year when he was initially attacked and put in a wardrobe.

Earlier that evening, Miss Stevens had seen Miss Patterson at the city centre Asda store. She was accompanied by one of the four accused of the murder, Donna Chalk, and they bought carpet cleaner which was later used to clean blood stains in the property, Winchester Crown Court heard.

She described how she “felt sick” as Miss Patterson told her Jamie had been punched and he was being made to clean up his own blood.

She told police in a video interview that Miss Patterson said she had gone into a room by herself and called a taxi to get away. The conversation took place after Jamie's body had been found.

The court was told how Miss Patterson made a 999 call reporting the killing of her friend when she realised what was happening as police discovered his body on Easter Sunday.

Five weeks later, Miss Patterson was arrested herself on suspicion of conspiracy to rob, relating to the theft of Jamie's laptop, and commit grievous bodily harm. She was however not charged in relation to Jamie's injuries and later his death.

Lee Nicholls, 28, of Southampton Street, Andrew Dwyer-Skeats, 26 and Chalk, 21 of Bevois Mews and Ryan Woodmansey, 32,of no fixed abode, all deny murder.

The three men admit perverting the course of justice by disposing of and setting fire to Jamie's body. Chalk denies that charge.

Proceeding