MEMBERS of a gang accused of torturing a young Southampton man to death discussed “killing police” if they were caught dumping the body, jurors heard.

One of the accused, Lee Nicholls, revealed to a detective after his arrest that they considered murdering any officer who rumbled them as they disposed of the body of 24-year-old Jamie Dack.

Jamie’s body was discovered on Easter Sunday in a burning industrial bin. He was already dead, having been beaten and repeatedly stabbed.

The murder trial at Winchester Crown Court has previously heard how two officers caught three of the defendants wheeling a bin along Empress Road in Southampton.

They told them to put it back where they had taken it from before driving off.

The trio waited until the officers left and then carried on wheeling the bin containing Jamie’s body to the industrial estate where he was put into a skip and set on fire.

In an interview read to the court, Nicholls, 28, recalled he and his co-accused discussed what they would do if police pulled them over again.

He said: “We had a drink and a coffee. I was just really discussing what we were gonna do and that.

“There were plans to kill the police if they stopped us.

“And I was like, you can’t be going to kill the police officers as well and they’re like ‘I can, I can, I don’t care, I am not going to jail, if it means killing someone else, then I will do that’.

“I just agreed with them, just to shut them up really.”

Jurors also heard how coaccused Donna Chalk claimed she stumbled on the gruesome sight of Jamie’s body.

In a transcript of a police interview, the 21-year-old said: “Lee stood there waving a knife around. I was crying. I didn’t know what to do.

“One part of me was saying just ring the police.”

Chalk then said she thought about fleeing the scene with another co-accused Andrew Dwyer-Skeats.

‘Froze’ She said: “I have never been in this situation where I had seen a dead body lying on the floor of a boy who used to help us a lot.

“Lee turned round and said to us that if we didn't help tidy up then we’d be the same as Jamie.

“I just sat there. I just froze – I physically couldn’t move.”

The prosecution case is set to end today with the defendants giving evidence next week.

Chalk and Dwyer-Skeats, 26, both of Bevois Mews, Southampton, Nicholls, of Southampton Street, and Ryan Woodmansey, 32, of no fixed address, 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.

For all the latest coverage from the Jamie Dack murder trial click here