A MERSEYSIDE man stabbed his drinking partner to death in front of the victim’s girlfriend, a court heard yesterday.

When she accused Peter Armstrong of stabbing him and told him to get an ambulance he had said "let the bastard die", alleged David Turner, QC, prosecuting.

As Kerry Waldron ran out to get help, she saw Armstrong kick her partner, Paul Williams, as he lay on the ground. She went back into the house, grabbed their two- year-old son, and ran to ring an ambulance.

A bus driver who had stopped outside the house in Queens Drive, Walton, to make a phone call heard her crying, "he’s dying, he’s been stabbed" and saw Mr Williams stumbling in the porch and falling.

He bravely ran to help and found there was blood everywhere and tried to administer first aid. "As he was doing this he saw the door open and saw standing in front of him was the defendant was holding a large kitchen knife in his left hand. He could see blood on the knife. Armstrong looked down at Paul’s body and then went back inside slamming the front door," alleged Mr Turner.

By the time paramedics arrived, the 33-year-old victim was in a critical condition. He was taken to Fazakerley Hospital but it was not possible to stop the bleeding and he died.

A post mortem examination later revealed two stab wounds. One had penetrated his body by seven inches and cut through his liver causing severe bleeding.

The other wound was at the front of his abdomen and had apparently penetrated the abdominal cavity. About six litres of blood were found in his abdomen.

Armstrong, 52, of Queens Drive, is on trial at Liverpool Crown Court where he denies murder.

Mr Turner told the jury: "It was a deliberate attack with a fearsome weapon on an unarmed man who had no idea he was to be attacked with such a weapon." Both men had serious drink problems and were friends, for at least two years with Mr Williams visiting Arm- strong’s house almost daily where they would drink together.

On August 3, Mr Williams showed his sister-in-law marks on his right palm and head which he claimed Armstrong had caused the previous day when he tried to stab him.

He told Kerry, with whom he lived from time to time, that Armstrong had sliced his hand.

That tea-time, Kerry called at Armstrong’s home with her son and found him drinking cider and lager and taking amphetamine. Mr Williams arrived at 6.40pm and she opened the door to him and he complained about what had happened the previous night and demanded to see Armstrong.

She fetched him and the two men, then scuffled and she intervened. She thought Mr Williams was being punched but then saw blood coming from Mr Williams’ mouth and a large kitchen knife in Armstrong’s hand, claimed Mr Turner.

When interviewed Armstrong claimed Mr Williams had started throwing punches at him and he had acted in self-defence.

The case continues.