Killer has no memory

A Rugeley railway worker told a jury he could not remember stabbing his pregnant girlfriend 17 times with a kitchen knife but accepted he had killed her and was "very sorry".

Alec Goode told the court he remembered fighting with Kristie Johnson, pictured, and holding her around her neck.

The next thing he remembered was standing at the foot of her bed with a bloody knife in his hand.

Goode, of Coulthwaite Way, denies murdering 19-year-old Miss Johnson, who was found beaten, strangled and stabbed, at her flat in Armitage Road, in the early hours of March 29.

At Stafford Crown Court yesterday Goode, aged 25, said he accepted he must have killed Miss Johnson and added: "I'm very sorry."

Goode admitted having an on-off relationship with Miss Johnson and claims he suffered a form of temporary insanity when he killed her.

He told the court he remembered the two of them fighting and he admitted punching her "a couple of times" and "holding her around the neck" but said the next thing he remembered was standing at the foot of her bed with a bloody knife in his hand.

The jury heard Goode and three other men had gone back to Kristie's flat to take drugs.

Goode admitted he took cocaine and injected amphetamine.

He said the couple were making plans to raise their unborn child but that they had started to argue when they were alone after Miss Johnson said she was going to have an abortion the next day.

The trial continues.