'Our hearts were broken into a million pieces, how can anyone get over this?'

A MURDERER who stabbed his long-term friend through the heart has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years and 188 days. Andrew Clark stabbed John 'Bamber' Donaldson in the chest and the abdomen in a row over his mountain bike, on November 21, last year. Mr Donaldson, 34, managed to pick himself up from the ground on Lealholm Walk, in Whale Hill, and stagger to his friend's home for help. He told Bernadette McElvaney: "I've been stabbed."

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The knife wound in his chest was 14cm deep and had penetrated his heart. He died later that evening in Middlesbrough's James Cook University Hospital.

Clark, 39, fled the scene, later claiming that he didn't realise his friend was seriously injured.

During his trial, he claimed he didn't attack Mr Donaldson but was "frightened for his life" as his victim attacked him.

Clark had spent time with Mr Donaldson that day, but he became increasingly angry after Mr Donaldson borrowed his mountain bike to go buy some lemonade from Jay's News on Birchington Avenue.

In court Clark claimed he had bought the bike for Mr Donaldson - but a witness said she heard him say: “Where’s my f****** bike?” as he turned up outside Ms McElvaney’s home.

Mr Donaldson was inside her house on Lealholm Walk, but he went out to tell Clark to go away, when he turned up for the third time in a Mercedes, beeping his horn.

An argument broke out and Mr Donaldson began hitting the Mercedes with a baseball bat. Clark had taken the car from his friend Katie Duffy, without her knowledge.