A TEENAGER died from a fatal stab wound to his heart after he was attacked at a party.

Jay Whiston tried to get away from the scene but a jury heard today how he was stabbed a second time before he collapsed nearby.

Despite help from friends, neighbours in the Colchester street and paramedics, the 17-year-old died a short while later in hospital.

By that time, his alleged attacker had fled from the scene and was on his way to his girlfriend's home in Clacton.

"This was a senseless and tragic taking of a young life so full of promise," prosecutor Mark Milliken-Smith QC told Chelmsford Crown Court.

"This is another desperate example of the indiscriminate and cowardly use of knives if any more evidence of the prevelance of knives was needed," he told a jury.

And he added: "This did not take place in a gang-over-run inner city estate but at a party at a house in suburban Colchester."

Jay and his friends had been at a party at a house in Marlowe Way. Lexden, along with around 100 other young people.

But a jury of seven men and five women heard how there was "an air of menace" at the scene thanks to one group of young people including alleged killer Edward Redman.

Mr Milliken-Smith alleged this group "presented an air of fear" and at one stage during the evening, Jay's group of friends were walking down an alleyway while Redman's group were coming the other way.

As they passed, Redman asked a friend of Jay to hand over a bottle of beer but when he refused, he was hit.

Jay got involved to help his friend and in the scuffle that followed, Jay was allegedly stabbed in the chest by Redman.

As he staggered from the scene, one of Redman's friends was heard to say "I'm going to bottle him" and Redman allegedly said: "I'm going to do him."

Moments later, Redman's friend threw a bottle towards Jay and Redman stabbed Jay a second time in the abdomen, Mr Milliken-Smith alleged.

Edward Redman denies murdering Jay Whiston at a house in Colchester on September 8, 2012.

Redman, 18, Halstead Road, Eight Ash Green, is alleged to have stabbed Jay to death during a party at a house in Marlowe Way, Lexden.

The teenager from Aster Close, Clacton, died at Colchester General Hospital later.

Redman's father Gary, 51, also from Halstead Road, Eight Ash Green, his 19-year-old brother John, High Street, Halstead, and Shannon Fenlon, 18, Jameson Road, Clacton, face a joint charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in connection with the alleged murder.

The three are accused of committing a series of acts between September 9 and September 12, 2012, with intent to pervert the course of justice by destroying or interfering with material which was potentially evidence relevant to a murder investigation.

The trial continues