A MAN accused of murdering his next-door neighbour in a row about noisy DIY has heard details of the victim's fatal injury.

Christopher Hoyland sat motionless in the dock and listened intently as Home Office pathologist Dr James Sunter described the blood loss suffered by George Evans as "catastrophic".

Electrician Mr Evans, 48, was stabbed to death in his home in St Barnabas Road, Middlesbrough, on November 19 last year.

Mr Hoyland, 42, denies murder and is on trial at Teesside Crown Court, which yesterday entered its fifth day.

Dr Sunter told the jury that Mr Evans died of haemorrhaging and shock from a single stab wound to the neck.

He said Mr Evans would have fainted from blood loss within a minute of the attack and would have probably died "very shortly afterwards".

However, Dr Sunter said the wound could have been caused by "a mild degree of force" .

Mr Hoyland claims he knew nothing about the killing, and was walking his sister's dog at the time of the attack.

The court has also heard that Mr Evans had received death threats in the month before he was killed and had contacted police about them.

His business partner, Neil Dawson, has said that Mr Evans had started a relationship with a former girlfriend while she was seeing another man, and was worried he might be killed if the other man found out.

The trial continues.