THE man accused of stabbing a Chester man to death in his flat told jurors that his victim “didn’t deserve to die”.
Giving evidence at Chester Crown Court, Gary Anthony George told the jury how he had been “out of the game” on a cocktail of heroin, crack cocaine, diazepam, amphetamines and four litres of sherry when he killed Andrew Mackenzie Nall.
George and 50 year-old Christine Margaret Holleran, 50, both homeless, are accused of the murder of Mr Nall, 53, at the victim’s flat in Eversley Park, off Liverpool Road, Chester.
George said after a fight had broken out in the victim’s flat, he kicked and stamped on Mr Nall’s head and chest, knocking him unconscious, before getting two knives from the kitchen, stabbing him, slicing his ear and cutting his throat .
George, said: “I just couldn’t stop myself. My head was gone.
“I just felt anger rushing through my body. I stabbed him six times down the left side of his body and cut his ear. I went round the back of him and then cut his throat.
“I was absolutely out of the game. I was bladdered.”
George also told jurors that while fighting, Mr Nall came at him with a small knife while they were in the hallway, at which point he forced Mr Nall to the ground and began kicking and stamping on him before finishing his attack in the bedroom.
When asked by his lawyer George Cole QC whether he had realised that Mr Nall was fatally injured, George replied “Unfortunately, yes.”
The court heard from George how he had fought with the victim in the living room after claiming Mr Nall had “gone to hit Christine”, smashing a clay plant pot over his head before continuing to fight in the hallway and finally in the bedroom, where the victim was killed.
George and Holleran had been drinking at the victim’s flat – where Holleran had been living – during the early evening of August 30 last year and went out to buy more alcohol from Bargain Booze on Brook Lane, where they were seen on CCTV cameras at about 9.30pm.
The court had heard earlier in the trial how George had told the shop assistant at Bargain Booze that Holleran had been raped and that he was going to “get him back”.
George said: “When we were walking on Liverpool Road going to get more alcohol, she (Holleran) said that he had forced himself on her two days earlier. I was asking how she was and knew she was upset. It made me quite angry.
“I don’t remember saying them things in the shop but I must have been angry about what I had just been told.”
When asked by Mr Cole what was going through his mind when he began to fight with Mr Nall and if he intended to hurt him, George replied “No it wasn’t. I just wanted to get Christine out of there.”
The court heard that Mr Nall, during an incident at his home some months earlier, had told police officers that he was a member of the right-wing English Defence League (EDL). He was said to have told them he was opposed to homosexuality, something which George, who is gay, claimed had never been an issue for the pair.
George was also asked about his “obsession” with witchcraft and love of horror movies, given that injuries suffered by Mr Nall were consistent with those in a scene of one of George’s favourite films, The Loved Ones.
Simon Medland QC, defending Holleran, said: “You had an obsession with witchcraft and tried to put spells on people.”
George replied: “No I never. I’m not obsessed with witchcraft and never put spells on anybody. I have an interest in it and took a book out of the library once because we wanted something to read, but it got stolen.”
Mr Medland said: “We have heard about the films that you watched in the Harold Tomlin’s day centre, in particular The Loved Ones.”
George replied: “I thought it was a clever film and liked the way it was put together. I’ve seen it three or four times. When Mr Medland asked George whether a certain clip in the film, where a heart shape is cut in the victim and salt rubbed in the wounds, was similar to the injuries suffered by Mr Nall, George replied “Yes, I suppose, you could say that.”
George told the jury he could not remember cutting marks into Mr Nall’s body, nor rubbing cleaning cream, which was found at the scene, into his eyes.
George and Holleran both deny murdering Mr Nall but George admits killing the 53-year-old on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Proceeding