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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
Gabriel Fowler

Key evidence in Jason Adams' manslaughter trial revealed in court

The scene of Jason Adams' death in Raymond Terrace in February, 2020. Inset, Mr Adams and Lily Ridgeway, who is on trial in the Supreme Court.

JASON Adams had been kicked out of the Raymond Terrace house in which he was living just hours before suffering a fatal stab wound, a Supreme Court jury has been told.

He had been arguing for hours via text message with Nikita Hanson, a key witness in the trial against Lily Ridgeway, who has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Adam's in the early hours of February 29, 2020.

Ms Hanson had been confiding in Ms Ridgeway saying that she was worried Mr Adams would create problems for her at her new rental and she wanted him out.

He had come to live there after the two of them (Ms Hanson and Mr Adams) were pulled over by police. Neither was licensed to drive. Mr Adams was jailed over the incident and, after being kicked out, was threatening to dob Ms Hanson in as the driver.

Ms Hanson denies being in the driver's seat that day but felt that she had to do Mr Adams 'a solid' by letting him move in with her at the end of his jail term because she'd been with him.

Ms Ridgeway arranged for two men to help Ms Hanson ask Mr Adams to leave. "He was acting like a psycho ex-boyfriend," Ms Hanson told the jury via audiovisual link in the Newcastle Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Ms Hanson said she could hear Mr Adams yelling out as he walked down her street just before 6am that morning yelling "Come on dog, you want to stab me ... come and stab me." "I was sort of pacing back and forth from the front door to my bedroom," Ms Hanson said.

The conversation outside her house between Ms Ridgeway, another man and Mr Adams was becoming increasingly heated, she said, and then she heard something smash. "The conversation got more heated after Lily had smashed his phone," she said.

Ms Hanson said she could hear Ms Ridgeway saying "She doesn't want you here, we don't want you here". When asked what happened next, Ms Hanson said "she stabbed him".

"She was holding a knife in her right hand and the knife went into his body," she said. "She was standing in front of him holding the knife and Jason leaning towards her moving towards her because he just kept saying are you going to stab me. So he was walking towards her... and the knife went into him."

When asked if she heard Ms Ridgeway said anything, Ms Hanson said she heard her say "Oh babe, you should have felt that". The jury was told that Ms Hanson has previously given evidence that Ms Ridgeway had said "Oh babe, you should have felt that, it felt so good." But on Tuesday she said that wasn't true - that Ms Ridgeway had not used the last four words. The trial continues.

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