A knife and baton were recovered from the Connswater River over two weeks after the murder of Ian Ogle, a court heard.
The 45-year old father-of-two was beaten and stabbed 11 times, yards from his Cluan Place home at around 9.20pm on Sunday January 27 2019.
As a trial into his murder entered its second week, a crime scene surveyor was called to give evidence.
From the witness box, he confirmed that on Thursday February 14 2019 he attended an area of the river close to Mersey Street.
He said that after being tasked to the area, he was informed about two items of interest - a knife and a baton.
The witness said these items were in the river and he told Belfast Crown Court: “I was able to see the items as the water was clear.”
He also confirmed there was a “high density” of housing in the area of east Belfast where the items were recovered.
It’s the Crown’s case that the knife and baton were located around 25 metres from the then home of one of the men accused of murdering Mr Ogle.
In January 2019, Robert Spiers lived in Mersey Street and during a search of his home in the aftermath of the killing, a set of knives from Lidl was found with one knife missing.
The knife located from the river was the same type as the missing knife from the set.
Spiers (41), now with an address at Millars Park in Dundonald, is one of three men standing trial for the murder of Mr Ogle.
He has denied the charge, as has Glenn Rainey (37) whose address was given as Ballyhalbert Caravan Park and Walter Alan Ervine (42) from Litchfield Street in Belfast.
Two co-accused - Jonathan Brown (38) from Whinney Hill in Dundonald and 45-year old Mark Sewell of Glenmount Drive in Newtownabbey - pleaded guilty to murdering Mr Ogle and were handed life sentences.
Also shown during Monday’s sitting was CCTV footage recorded on various cameras in east Belfast.
The footage - which includes the fatal attack at the entrance of Cluan Place - was shown to Mr Justice McFarland in the non-jury trial.
The senior judge also viewed several pieces of footage taken from the Glider bus shelter on Templemore Avenue.
This footage captured five men with their faces covered walking towards Cluan Place.
The same camera also recorded the same men returning several minutes later.
On the ‘return’ footage, two of the group are running and two are walking - and whilst one of the group is carrying what the Crown say appears to be a knife, another appears to be holding a baton in his hand.
At hearing.