A partygoer put his hand around a dad-of-two's back, pulled him in close and stabbed him in the heart after a fight at a party escalated, a court heard today.
Adam Fletcher allegedly murdered Paul Stenson outside a home on Princess Drive in West Derby on December 18 last year - only hours after the two met at a party there. After an argument between the two turned into a scuffle and they were asked to go outside, Fletcher is said to have grabbed a kitchen knife from inside the home before hiding it behind his back, pulling Mr Stenson towards him and plunging it into his side.
NOTE: An earlier version of this article wrongly stated that it was Mr Stenson who is said to have grabbed a kitchen knife, rather than Fletcher.
The error was quickly corrected, but we apologise to Mr Stenson's family for any distress caused. The prosecution has made clear that Mr Stenson was unarmed.
Prosecutors say that lone knife wound inflicted “catastrophic” damage, going straight through 30-year-old Mr Stenson’s heart and causing him to bleed to death within an hour. They also say Fletcher, 28, tried to dodge justice for days after the killing with the help of his then girlfriend, Susie Lee, and friends, Demi Walsh and Nathan Finnegan.
READ MORE: Girlfriend 'told murder accused get out the country' after dad of two stabbed
Fletcher stands accused of murder and of possessing a bladed article. Lee, Walsh and Finnegan are all accused of assisting an offender, while Lee also faces an additional charge of attempted witness intimidation. The four deny all the charges and are currently on trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
Richard Pratt, QC, prosecuting, told jurors this morning that neither Mr Stenson nor Fletcher were invited to the 21st birthday party where the incident took place and were instead both invited by separate sets of friends who wanted to see them.
Mr Pratt said: “They had come to that party in apparent good spirits. However, before daybreak the 30-year-old, Paul Stenson, would be pronounced dead having been stabbed by the other man, Adam Fletcher.”
He told the jury that Mr Stenson’s girlfriend, Samantha Rosser, had been out in the garden having a cigarette when Fletcher came up to her and began speaking to her in a “flirtatious” way. In her evidence to police, and in court again today, she said she felt uncomfortable about it and told her partner. Mr Stenson then went to speak to Fletcher but Ms Rosser said, when she went into the hallway to check on them, they seemed civil. Mr Pratt said Ms Rosser was frustrated by this and went to walk home.
However, a short time later other partygoers reported a scuffle starting inside the kitchen between Fletcher and Mr Stenson. After being asked to leave, Mr Pratt said prosecutors believed Fletcher then grabbed a kitchen knife from a knife block in the kitchen before going outside.
Here, he referred to a number of witness statements which claimed Fletcher had the knife behind his back as he stood near Mr Stenson outside the home.
Referring to the statement of one witness, Mr Pratt said: “He said [Fletcher] had his arm around Paul Stenson’s back and pulled him in so that he could plunge the knife into his chest.
“Paul then stumbled back and said ‘I’ve been stabbed’.”
Ms Rosser said in court today she had not made it far up the road when she heard a commotion and a woman came up to her and told her “there’s been a murder”. She returned to find her partner, with whom she and her two children had been Christmas shopping with just hours before, dying in the street.
Doctors tried to save Mr Stenson but he died shortly after his arrival at Aintree Hospital.
Mr Pratt said Fletcher accepted stabbing Mr Stenson but claimed he did so in self defence, something prosecutors did not accept. He pointed to the alleged holding of the knife behind the back as evidence Fletcher wanted to spring an attack on Mr Stenson.
Mr Pratt said: “He wanted to use it as a weapon and as a weapon of surprise.”
The court heard that after Mr Stenson died Fletcher took a taxi away from the scene and spent days trying to evade justice. Prosecutors allege Finnegan, Lee and Walsh all played a role in helping him avoid arrest for days afterwards. In Lee’s case, they also allege she tried to intimidate a witness who was at the party.
Fletcher, 28, of Palace Road, denies murder and possession of a bladed article.
Finnegan, 30, of Rosalind Way, and Walsh, 28, of Redbourn Street, both deny assisting an offender.
Lee, 21, denies assisting an offender and attempting to intimidate a witness.
Proceeding
