A FRIEND of Jamie Dack told how she called police to help with his murder investigation because she knew a group of people allegedly responsible and it was "eating me up inside".

Amber Paterson told how it was "physically destroying" her after piecing together what had happened that ended in the 22-year-old's body being found burnt in a bin.

Miss Paterson was at Winchester Crown Court today to give evidence in the trial of Donna Chalk, Lee Nicholls, Andrew Dwyer-Skeats and Ryan Woodmansey, who are all charged with murder.

However the 23-year-old, who was once a girlfriend of Nicholls, had been granted special dispensation to give evidence from behind a screen by the court.

In a video interview with police from Tuesday April 10, Miss Paterson described how she had been to Bevois Mews days earlier and found Jamie had been beaten and was inside a wardrobe covered in blood when she saw him.

She described to police how she was shocked and distraught and left the room, but the men involved were laughing and joking and kept going back in, ordering Jamie to do things like clean up his own blood.

She told how she felt "trapped" because she thought the group wouldn't let her leave the first floor flat in case she went to the police.

However, she managed to go to the toilet and call a taxi before making her excuses and leaving.

The following day Miss Paterson said she received numerous text messages and calls, including one from a man who was part of the group who admitted he had stabbed Jamie in the neck.

When she went silent, he began laughing and saying he was only joking, the court was told.

Miss Paterson said she learnt about the discovery of a body in bins in Empress Road when watching the news and reading about it on the Internet. But it was when she saw reporters outside the flat in Bevois Mews that she suddenly pieced it all together and realised what had happened.

Chalk, 21, and Dwyer-Skeats, 26, of Bevois Mews, Southampton; Woodmansey, 32, of no fixed address, and Nicholls, 28, of Southampton Street, Southampton, all deny murder.

Chalk also faces a further charge of perverting the course of justice - a charge admitted by the three men who say they disposed of and set fire to Jamie's body.