Court told of alleged prison bribe

One of the four friends accused of torturing, murdering and helping dismember a man over a drug debt tried to pay a cellmate $10,000 to lie for him in court, a jury has been told.

Steven Roberts, 50, Stephen Gandy, 40, Christian Gomis, 30, and Jayden Kett, 26, are all charged with murdering Beau Davies, whose body parts were found in a wheelie bin at a Boulder house in February last year.

The court was told yesterday how the group believed Mr Davies had swindled them out of money and drugs, and decided to teach the 24-year-old a lesson while recovering what they were owed.

They are accused of binding Mr Davies with cable ties, before stabbing him and beating him with an axe handle, then chopping off his right finger.

One stab wound to the neck would have severed Mr Davies' jugular vein, Prosecutor Bruno Fiannaca said.

He also described how the victim had then been chopped up into eight pieces with a machete and a knife, and dumped in the wheelie bin.

Continuing his opening statement, Mr Fiannaca revealed that while being held in Casuarina Prison near Perth, Mr Kett had attempted to bribe a fellow prisoner to tell authorities he had taken part in the gruesome crime under duress.

But the prisoner had instead told the police about the offer, and that Mr Kett had told him that story was "bullshit" and that the four had taken cable ties and a large canvas bag to Mr Davies' house, before beating, torturing and killing him.

Defence lawyer Belinda Lonsdale, representing Mr Gandy, said he admitted being involved in the attempted cover-up of the crime but had not contributed to the injuries which killed Mr Davies.

Ms Lonsdale would say it was Mr Kett who had inflicted the majority of the wounds, with an iron bar and a knife, and that he had tried to stop the bashing.

"It was not planned, not expected...and he did nothing to encourage them," Ms Lonsdale said.