'I thought I was dead, I had blood on my face'

MURDER TRIAL WITNESS RECALLS BEING STABBED ON DOORSTEP

- By MARTIN NAYLOR

A KEY murder trial witness has told how he was stabbed multiple times to his head, neck and back on his own doorstep.

Declan Hayles had "blood all over" his face when Andrew Thorpe stabbed him after arriving at his Edwalton home armed and wearing a ski mask.

He collapsed in a neighbour's hallway and asked them to call an ambulance and his mother to let her know what had happened.

Just weeks later, 38-year-old Thorpe killed a fellow prisoner at Nottingham Prison.

Thorpe, of Alfred Street North, St Ann's, is on trial at Nottingham Crown Court for the murder of Jonathan Thornton behind bars.

He denies the charge but previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter as an alternative, less serious, charge.

Thorpe also previously denied the attempted murder of Mr Hayles but guilty to wounding with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm on him, also as a lesser alternative.

He claims he did not intend to kill or try to kill either man.