A FATHER was stabbed to death outside his own home after a row over a drugs debt escalated into a night of violence, a court has heard.

Two other men were also left with stab wounds after the knife attack which prosecutors say was carried out by three drug dealers in a small residential street in Didcot.

During the violence, a jury was told today, one witness said the attackers were armed with knives, bottles and a metal bar.

Despite efforts to save the alleged murder victim – Darren 'Dizzy' MacCormick – the 44-year-old's heart stopped beating at the scene and he was pronounced dead at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford shortly after.

Isaac Boyland, 20, of Marlborough Road, Oxford, Brookton Lagan, 19, of Robin Way, Didcot, and Taison Cyrille, also 19, of Market End Way, Bicester, all deny murdering Darren MacCormick.

They further deny two counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm upon two men - Matthew Ryman and Floyd Kennedy.

Boyland and Cyrille also deny a charge of conspiracy to supply a controlled drug of Class A - cocaine - between January 1 and 10 this year, which Lagan has admitted.

Their trial got under way at Oxford Crown Court today.

Outlining the case to the jury, prosecutor Eloise Marshall QC said the violence all took place in Mendip Heights, Didcot, in the early hours of January 9 this year.

Ms Marshall told jurors: "It is the Crown's case that Lagan, Cyrille and Boyland acted together during that attack.

"They are responsible jointly for the death of Darren MacCormick and the grievous bodily harm of Matthew Ryman and Floyd Kennedy."

Ms Marshall said that, in the days leading up to the attack, the three accused men were all involved in dealing Class A drugs - crack cocaine.

She said Mr MacCormick had been a 'recreational' drug user, with cannabis and crack cocaine the preferred drug of choice.

She said the triple stabbing could be traced to an earlier row and an ensuing 'drugs debt' between Lagan and a friend of Mr MacCormick's.

This was described to the jury as a 'trivial' and 'relatively minor disagreement' between the accused men and the alleged victims and their friends.

It was that ongoing row, the court heard, that led to the knife attack at the home Mr MacCormick shared with a friend and, ultimately, to his death.

Ms Marshall told the jury that the argument involved an earlier incident where a friend of Mr MacCormick gave Lagan a lift to Milton Keynes but was stopped by police en route for being uninsured.

This led to a row which escalated over the coming days, she said, to the night of the alleged murder in which the three men drove with another man - who is not on trial - to Mendip Heights, armed with knives.

There, it was claimed, they all went on to attack their three alleged victims who were outside.

The violence was described as happening very quickly and afterwards the men are claimed to have driven off after discarding knives – three of which the police later seized.

The jury went on to hear of the injuries in which all of the three men received.

It was claimed that one of the two men was stabbed in the head and another received a stab wound to the leg.

Mr MacCormick, the jury was told, received a number of injuries to his arms and his right hand, as well as 'defensive injuries.'

A neighbour claimed to have seen a man running back to kick Mr MacCormick on the 'neck or the head.'

The fatal injury was a stab wound to the chest, which was described as 10cm deep and which caused damage to his heart.

He was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford but at at 4.56am he was declared dead.

The jury went on to hear that all three of the accused men were arrested at Luton Airport after what prosecutors claim was an effort to 'flee the country' to Amsterdam.

At police interview, the court heard, both Cyrille and Boyland answered no comment to all of the questions put to them.

Lagan, meanwhile, gave a written statement to the police where he claimed he had never been involved in the stabbing of either of the three men.

Prosecutors said that he also claimed he was not present and he knew nothing about it.

All three men deny the charges and the trial - expected to last about six weeks - continues.