KEY witnesses in the case told the court they were not searched as they entered Stourbridge nightspot Chicago's on the fateful night Ryan Passey was stabbed to death.
Devastated friends and family of Mr Passey, aged 24, have previously spoken out about how they "don't believe any searches were taking place" on August 5 2017 - the night the popular footballer was attacked and killed in the crowded bar.
Club bosses admitted at Dudley Council's licensing committee last August that, with hindsight, the procedures they had in place that night were "inappropriate" but they have insisted searches of one in every six people were carried out on the night of the tragedy.
A number of witnesses who were in the Ryemarket bar that night, however, told Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday that they were not searched on entry the night Mr Passey (pictured below) died - nor had they been searched on previous occasions.
Bradley Maslen-Jones confirmed he was not searched that night or the night before when he went to Chicago's and he added: "I'd never seen anyone searched."
While Bradley Hackett, who entered the club with murder accused Kobe Murray and friend Ethan Jones, confirmed he was not searched - neither were his two friends - and he added that he had not been searched on previous occasions when he went to the club.
And Matthew Hall said in a statement read out to the court: "I have in the past been searched on rare occasions going in - but that night I was not."
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