A MAN accused of stabbing his gay lover through the heart had fought with him before, a witness has told a murder trial.

David Fielding, 25, of Lynthorpe Road, Blackburn, denies killing his partner James Todd, 27, at the flat they shared in Rutland Close, Clayton-le-Moors, last September.

The jury heard from Jason Milligan, who also worked as a chef with Mr Todd at Sparth House Hotel, Whalley Road, and had visited the couple to find them in the middle of a ‘dramatic scene’, with Fielding locked out.

He told the court once Fielding got back inside, he overheard Mr Todd say to Fielding: “You can put the knife down now.”

He then saw Fielding with a cut and bloodied face and Mr Todd with red knuckles.

Defence barrister Ian MacDonald QC accused Mr Milligan of being ‘a bit of a drama queen’ and that the overheard conversation was ‘a figment of your imagination’.

Mr Milligan denied the accusation and said: “When I went into the flat I was frightened and just wanted to get James out.”

The jury also heard from several other employees and ex-employees who worked with Mr Todd at Sparth House, and recalled seeing wounds on Mr Todd's body while he was working there in the summer of 2010.

Mr Todd told hotel owner Amanda Brelsford that a missing part of his ear had been bitten off ‘during a rugby match’ and that an apparent stab wound on his shoulder – which required redressing by staff when Mr Todd came to work with a makeshift Selotape bandage – had happened ‘while out drinking in Accrington’.

Mrs Brelsford recalled ringing Mr Todd’s mobile phone and going to his flat on the morning of Monday, September 6, when he didn’t show for a 6am shift.

She told the court that Fielding rang the hotel later that morning and said that if they were looking for Mr Todd, he had ‘gone to Manchester on a drinking bender’.

The prosecution allege that Fielding had stabbed Mr Todd through the heart the night before.

His decomposed body was only discovered three weeks later on September 27.

(Proceeding)

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