A DRUG addict stabbed a man three times and ran off before he had even hit the floor after he stepped into a fight between their girlfriends, a court heard.

Kevin Paddick, 34, has denied murdering Danny Myers after he died of a stab wound to the heart and claimed he acted in self-defence.

During a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court today, Mr Myers’ partner Kelly Luckhurst said she had been fighting with Paddick’s girlfriend Rachel Kirby when he grabbed her by the arms.

She said: “Me and Rachel started fighting and I was getting the better of her. Punches were thrown between both of us.

“Kevin held me by my arms behind my back so Rachel could give me a dig.

“Danny pulled Kevin off of me and they managed to fall on the kitchen table - Danny was on his back and Kevin was on top of him.

“They were having a scuffle and Kevin reached to the knife drawer, pulled out a knife and stabbed him three times.

“The first stab he was on his back on the table, the second one he was just getting up and the third he was on his feet.

“All the colour went out of him, he fell on the floor and hit his head on the dishwasher on the way down.

“Kevin left out the back door before Danny has even hit the floor.”

Miss Luckhurst and Mr Myers, 23, had been living in the flat in Rochford Road, St Osyth, with two other women - householder Lyn Trantor and an elderly woman, for three months before Mr Myers died in March.

During her evidence she explained how Paddick and Miss Kirby, who were people she knew but was not friends with, had turned up at the flat uninvited on the day of the incident.

She said Miss Kirby and Paddick smoked crack cocaine before the three and Mr Myers went to the shops to buy cigarettes and beers, before heading to another acquaintance’s house where she had been goaded by Miss Kirby.

When they arrived back at the Rochford Road flat in St Osyth in the early hours of the morning, Miss Kirby and Miss Luckhurst had begun fighting outside and in the living room before it was broken up.

Paddick, of Rosemary Road, Clacton, and his partner left the property for ten minutes before returning when another fight broke out.

Miss Luckhurst, 29, added: “It was not a nice atmosphere – it never was with Kevin and Rachel. It is never nice with Kevin wherever you are.

“When he is like that Kevin tries to intimidate you and says he will hurt anyone.

“He was not like that on the night but he would talk so much he would get on your nerves.

“I think he uses drugs – whenever I see him his eyes are hanging out.”

During cross examination, Steven Perian QC said Mr Myers was a drug dealer and Paddick had stabbed him in lawful self defence after being attacked with a metal wheel brace and a knife after a row between the two broke out.

He said: “It was Danny who opened the drawer to pick up the knife and had hit Kevin with an item - a wheel brace - to the back of his head.

“Kevin stabbed Danny because he was attacking him wasn’t he?”

n The trial continues.