A Warrington dad accused of the murder of Billy Moore has maintained he was acting in self-defence after a court heard his victim suffered 12 injuries including a fatal stab wound to the throat.
James Ireland is on trial at Liverpool Crown Court denying murdering 31-year-old Billy Moore who was repeatedly stabbed during the incident at Bewsey.
Ireland, 41, of Lodge Lane, Bewsey, told the jury that he feared for his own life and that the victim had been strangling him so he grabbed the knife from BIlly’s waistband and waved it around to get him off him.
Asked if he thought about what would happen if the knife made contact with Billy he said, “No, I was just trying to get him off.”
He said he realised the knife had caught him but said he was not sure if he was hurt. He did not find out he had died until his arrest but had been petrified about being arrested and going to jail.
The court heard that after the incident he sent a text to his youngest daughter saying, “See you in 20 years’.
Asked by his KC Stan Reiz why he said that, Ireland said he did not know nor did not know to what it referred.
The court has heard that the victim suffered 12 injuries which included two to the right side of his face and one, eight centimetre deep, to the right lower neck which had almost cut his carotid artery in two. He also had one to his chest also eight centimetres deep, and the remainder were to his hands and arms.
Ireland told the jury that he had met Billy twice before the fatal night but did not know him well enough to consider him as a friend.
On the evening of December 22 last year while out on his way to buy some beer he was on Longshaw Street when he saw Billy on the other side of the road and he came over to Ireland.
Ireland said, Billy said ’all right mate’ and replied, ’I’m sound mate.’
They chatted for a minute or two and before parting they hugged. “Why did you do that?’ asked Mr Reiz. “Friendship. It was a nice conversation,” he replied.
He said he intended taking the beer to his girlfriend’s home where he was living and while on Gerrard Avenue his 14-year-old daughter and his 12-year-old cousin “came running over to me.”
He said they looked “scared and they both said someone tried to grab them.”
They described the man and Ireland said he knew it was Billy because of the backpack he had on. He said he was a bit upset about what they had told him and intended going to Billy’s home to ask him what had been going on.
He asked the girls to come with him and gave his daughter the bag containing the beer cans. He knocked on the door of Billy’s home in Yardley Avenue while the girls stood by the gate.
When Billy opened the door Ireland said he said to the girls, “’Is this the person?’ and one of them said ‘yes’,”
He claimed Billy threw a punch at him which caught the right side of his neck. “It dazed me a bit,” said Ireland, who admitted the beer he had drunk had left him feeling “merry” and he had also taken diazepam, which he takes “to get a buzz off them.”
The court heard that Ireland is five foot eight tall and Billy was six foot four. He said he had not expected the blow and was shocked.
“He grabbed me around the throat, with both hands around my neck.” Asked how much force Billy had allegedly used he said, “Enough to stop me breathing.
“I feared for my life. My hands were down at my side. My hands moved to his waist because I saw a knife there.”
Ireland claimed he saw a chrome knife handle about four inches long and he grabbed it with his right hand. I wanted to grab it to get Billy off me.
“I used it to get him off me. I was waving my arms about everywhere to get him off my throat.”
He said he thought his left fist made contact with Billy’s face and was waving around his right hand with the knife in it and “made contact a few times…in his chest and face I think, to get him off me.
“I was trying to scare him off, he was choking me. I pulled away from him.”
Asked by Mr Reiz why he had not stopped after the first time he made contact with the knife he said, I didn’t know I had got him.”
The jury has heard that in an audio recording his daughter was heard saying, ‘get off my dad, let him go.’
Ireland said his back was against the wall when he was being strangled by the doorway. Asked how Billy looked when he left the scene Ireland said, “He looked okay.”
He claimed that the victim said, “wait until tomorrow” but he was not sure what that meant.
He said he walked to his girlfriend’s home still carrying the knife and he put it on the side in the kitchen. He said he had given his coat to his daughter before she left but did not know why he had done so.
In another audio recording, he can be heard saying something like ‘don’t say anything’. Ireland said he cannot remember why he would say that.
He said he was scared of being arrested because he caught Billy with the knife. “Did you think you had done something criminal?” asked his KC. “Yeah stabbed Billy,” he replied.
Questioned about why he had stabbed him Ireland said, “Self-defence.” He said that by the time he got to his girlfriend’s home he was “scared and panicking.”
He said he was drunk by the time he got to his girlfriend’s home as he had drug more beer and taken some tablets. Ireland said he later spent the night on the fields “at the back of the houses”. Asked why he said, “I just did, I can’t remember.”
The case continues
Dad who stabbed Billy Moore to death claims he acted in self-defence
