A businessman accused of murdering his sister’s boyfriend on Christmas Day has been grilled under cross-examination after telling jurors he does not remember holding any knives or slashing the man’s neck.

Adam Jenkins said he was fearful of Simon Birch after seeing him brutally attack his older sister, Emma, at his house in Newbottle, near Houghton-le-Spring.

He told his trial at Newcastle Crown Court he had been locked in the kitchen but had gone out of the back of the house intending to protect his family from the 39-year-old who had a history of volatile behaviour when in drink.

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The pair met on the drive where Mr Birch suffered a cut to the throat, which fatally severed his carotid artery and jugular vein.

Mr Jenkins, a construction company boss, accepts CCTV footage from his house shows him holding a knife in each hand and that Mr Birch was injured.

The 35-year-old claims Mr Birch had punched him in the chest prior to the injury being inflicted.  

Mr Jenkins said he has been having flashbacks to the evening during the time he has spent on remand and is now to able piece together most of the events of the incident, which took place just before midnight on December 25.

He said he had fallen asleep after drinking all day but was awoken being told Emma and Mr Birch were fighting on the landing.

The jury has already been told Mr Birch had a history of domestic abuse towards Emma and was known to have hit her on several occasions.

Giving evidence, Mr Jenkins, a father-of-two, said: “I knew what was coming.

“I said: ‘You are not doing this where the kids are’. He was angry. He was chasing her.

“Everyone was starting to scream. I could tell from the way he was screaming and the way he went downstairs it was going to turn violent.

“Simon grabbed hold of her hair and dragged her into the sitting room.  

“I started following and thinking it is horrible. Simon went towards Emma, pulled her hair, pulled her down and started uppercutting her in the face.

“She was screaming: “You are going to kill me.”

Mr Jenkins said he tried to stop Mr Birch but was unable to so tried to get help from his wife, Natalie, and his step-dad.

Mr Jenkins said: “I went back and he was still hitting her.

“I said: ‘You are going to kill her. Then he hit her and she fell down. She stopped shouting. She was on the floor, not saying anything.

“I could see the blood and said: ‘You have killed her.

“I could see the blood. It was in a dark patch on the floor, in front of her head.

“She had landed with her head down and her bum in the air.”

“I thought she was dead.”

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Mr Jenkins said Mr Birch picked up a toy car and threw it at him before throwing punches.

He said the next thin he remembers is waking up on the sofa.

Mr Jenkins said Mr Birch then grabbed his wife, Natalie, and threw her towards him.

He said they went into the passageway of the house and Natalie pushed him into the kitchen which has a broken door meaning it cannot be opened from the inside.

Mr Jenkins said: “You had to open it with a breadknife. You had to jiggle the lock. I got locked in the kitchen. I was trying to get back in the passage.

“I knew what he was doing to my sister. I was trying to get back to help my family. It was horrible. I was booting the door trying to get in.”

He told the jury he went out the back of the house with the intention of going back inside the front door but saw Mr Birch was on the driveway.

He said he does not recall being in possession of three knives.

Asked by his barrister if he intended to kill Mr Birch, Mr Jenkins replied: “100 per cent not.”

He said he did not intend serious harm or to hurt him in anyway.

He said: “Simon was approaching me with his hands out and punching me.

“I remember turning and being at the back door.

“The next thing I remember is Natalie screaming: ‘Adam, Adam, Adam’.”

Mr Jenkins said he recalled ringing an ambulance but has no recollection of what was said on the phone.

He accepts his voice is the one on a recorded 999 call, but said he cannot recall saying: ‘I have killed him’ or ‘He tried to stab us.’

Cross-examining Mr Jenkins, Jamie Hill KC accepted it was a panicked conversation but suggested: “You were trying to excuse what you had done.”

Mr Hill said: “From what you have told us today, you can remember most of what happened.

“You can remember all of Simon Birch’s action but the two things that you did, picking up the knives and cutting his throat, are the things that you cannot remember?

“Isn’t that just a little convenient?”

Mr Hill said the defence statement submitted to the court suggested Mr Birch’s throat had been cut by accident.

Mr Hill suggested Mr Jenkins was angry at what had happened and decided to take revenge on Mr Birch for ‘kicking off’ in his house.

Mr Jenkins said: “I didn’t know I had knives in my hand and I don’t remember inflicting the injury.”

Mr Jenkins, of Sunderland Road, Newbottle, denies murder.

The trial continues.

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