A HEARTBROKEN father has told a jury his son knew he was going to die as he lay drenched in his own blood in the street.

Josh Hirst, 20, was allegedly chased by two masked men and had his throat cut just yards from his home in Grove Street, Mirfield on August 3, last year.

Yesterday his father Terence Hirst, held back tears as he gave evidence of the night his son was murdered.

Joe Church, 20, Aaron Smith, 18, and Nadeem Rashid, 21, are on trial at Leeds Crown Court yesterday accused of murder.

Mr Hirst told the court: “Josh looked at me and said, ‘I’m going to die here’. I said ‘you are not – your brother loves you, I love you, your girlfriend, your mum. You’ve got a business to run’, and I tried to keep him talking.”

He told the court minutes earlier how he had got up from bed to find Josh staggering in the kitchen pouring with blood.

He said: “He just looked at me and said ‘I’ve been stabbed, what do I do?’

“I told him to go to the van and I’d take him to hospital.”

But Prosecutor Neil Davey, QC, told the court Josh didn’t make it to the van and collapsed a short distance away while Mr Hirst was quickly getting dressed.

Mr Hirst continued: “I went out to where the van was parked. I looked and then happened to glance at the floor and he was laid face down.

“The lights were shining in a puddle and I thought ‘it’s not been raining’ but it was a pool of his blood.”

The court heard how Mr Hirst then went to Josh and tried desperately to stop the bleeding as his wife came out and phoned an ambulance.

And it was by chance a friend of Josh’s, Ruby Midgley was walking back from work with her boyfriend and saw what was happening.

She said in a witness statement: “I saw Josh’s dad kneeling down at the side of the road. His mum was on the phone.

“I was then shocked because there was blood all over his (Josh’s) neck, face and body.

“I shouted for someone to get towels then Josh’s mum handed me the phone.

“The paramedics told me to put pressure on. He was trying to sit up and struggling to breathe.

“Josh’s dad carried on talking to him.”

Mr Hirst later described Ms Midgley as ‘an angel’ for her efforts in trying to save his son who died an hour later in hospital.

The court then heard how Josh, a gym enthusiast, had started working for his dad in the family welding and fabrication business when he left school and it was hoped he would continue it when his dad retired.

He said his son loved going out and was keen to ‘look the part’, taking pride in his appearance.

The court heard he had some years earlier injured his knee in a glass door and was awarded £11,000 compensation which was held until he was 18. He used some of the money to buy a black Audi A3 and put aside some for the insurance. He later traded in the car for a white Audi A4, together with a loan, some months before he was killed.

But the court heard how the same distinctive car was spotted at an ugly incident at Joe Church’s house in May last year and the defendant wrongly believed Josh Hirst was involved.

And the following day windows on Terence Hirst’s van were smashed.

No further contact was made and Josh told his dad he thought it had ‘blown over’.

But the prosecution told the jury on Monday that all three accused ‘hunted’ Josh Hirst, then Smith of Savile Street, Emley and Church of Redlands Close, Mirfield, stabbed him and made off with Rashid, of Lapwing View, Horbury, driving a silver Renault Megane.

All three deny murder. The trial continues.