Young father 'used dying breaths to name friend who attacked him and his new girlfriend'

A father used his dying words to identify his killer, and the man who cut his girlfriend's throat, to police despite being stabbed 29 times, a court was told.

The Old Bailey heard that Bradley Wood attacked his friend, Lee Hatley, in Islington, north London, because the defendant was "jealous" that Wood had a "better life" than him.

It is alleged that the 25-year-old Wood launched into a brutal attack, stabbing the 29-year-old Hatley 29 times, leaving a piece of blade embedded in his brain at around 2am on 26 June this year.

Wood was also alleged to have attacked Hatley's girlfriend, Lauren Egan-Perkins, 22, as she slept, stabbing her in the neck.

Despite being stabbed in the head, neck and chest, Hatley managed to stagger next door to alert neighbours and even tell officers who attacked him, the court heard

"As they sought to provide him with first aid, he told them he had been stabbed 'everywhere' and named the person who stabbed him as Bradley Wood," Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said according to the Daily Mail.

"He was heard to repeat this identification of his assailant on a number of occasions by neighbours and then police officers, who he also told he was dying.

"In fact not only Lee Hatley but also his partner Lauren Egan-Perkins had been stabbed with a kitchen knife picked up at Egan-Perkins' flat by Bradley Wood."

Hatley, a father-of-one, had only met Egan-Perkins a few weeks before his death and on the night of the stabbing the pair had spent the evening with Wood and another friend smoking cannabis and drinking, the court heard.

The jury was told how the other friend left and Egan-Perkins had gone to bed before she awoke whilst being stabbed in the neck and throat.

Atkinson said that on the night of Hatley's death Wood had been "paranoid" and was heard complaining his friend had a "better life" than his.

"During the time that they were all together, there had been some concerns about the defendant. He had been paranoid that people were after him," Atkinson said according to the Metro.

"He had also started to talk of how Hatley had enjoyed a better life than his own because he [Wood] had been in foster care and prison."

Wood fled the scene and travelled to Northampton before he handed himself into police where he told officers that when he picked up a knife Hatley "misunderstood" and lunged at him, the court was told.

The jury heard that Wood, of New College Mews, Islington, claimed he did not intend to harm Hatley during a struggle, and he did not explain how Egan-Perkins became hurt.

Wood denies murder, attempted murder and the alternative of wounding with intent. The trial continues.