A MAN who killed his neighbour after stabbing him during an argument at a barbecue party has told a jury what sparked the fatal row.

James Thornley claims Mark Sweeney became enraged when he “burst out laughing” at a suggestion that he used to be a cage-fighter.

Mr Thornley’s version was branded “nonsense” by prosecutor Graham Reeds, QC, who suggested a different reason for the fall-out.

Mr Reeds accused the father-of-two of being angry because Mr Sweeney had avoided him during the garden party he threw on June 26.

The barrister suggested that Mr Thornley was aggrieved by his neighbour’s apparent “ungrateful and ungracious”

attitude towards him.

During emotional evidence yesterday, Mr Thornley, 43, told the jury that he accepted responsibility for 37-year-old Mr Sweeney’s death.

He denies a charge of murder and claims he was acting in self-defence and was provoked by his neighbour before delivering the fatal blows.

Mr Thornley told the jury at Teesside Crown Court that he lashed out with a knife in his hand but did not realise the damage he had caused.

He said he armed himself because Mr Sweeney had grabbed him by the throat and choked him, and then attacked his wife, Helen.

The account appeared to be partly in contrast to the evidence given by Mrs Thornley on behalf of the prosecution the previous day.

She agreed that her husband had been grabbed by the throat, but did not say she had been either slapped or shoved.

Mr Thornley also disputed his wife’s claim that she had taken one knife from him before he grabbed another and stabbed Mr Sweeney.

The jury has heard that the two men had an argument a week earlier after a “for sale”

sign was put up in Mr Thornley’s front garden.

Mr Thornley blamed his neighbour for the practical joke, but Mr Sweeney denied being responsible and refused to say who was.

At the party, Mr Thornley drank cans and bottles of lager, powerful shots and white rum and coke.

He said he was a six-to-seven out of ten on a scale of drunkenness, and the court heard he was twice the legal driving limit after his arrest.

Mr Thornley, of Hollowfield, Chilton, County Durham, choked back tears as he relived the clash with Mr Sweeney.

He said a guest at the party referred to his neighbour as ‘Sweeney Todd’, and he replied: “That’s what they used to call me when I was a cage-fighter.”

“I just burst out laughing and Mark said ‘I was a cagefighter, I was a cage-fighter’ and started to get annoyed,”

said Mr Thornley.

Struggling to take breath in the witness box, he added: “He came running at us... he pushed me against the fence with his arm.

“Mark said he was going to kill us all. My daughter was there . . . she screamed ‘Get off my daddy, leave my daddy alone’.”

Mr Thornley said he went inside his home, but came out armed when he heard his wife screaming and saw her being attacked.

The trial continues.