Accused 'told pal of killing'

The best friend of a Wolverhampton College manager charged with murdering his lecturer colleague today recalled the moment the accused phoned him and asked: "Are you sitting down? I think I've killed her."

Giving evidence via video link, Steve Carroll said Stephen Dowds rang to confess "things weren't good" on the weekend he is said to have stabbed lover Mandy Finn 60 times.

Dowds, aged 49, denies murdering the 40-year-old psychology lecturer at the home they shared on Newhampton Road West, Whitmore Reans.

Mr Carroll, speaking from Los Angeles, said Dowds, whom he met at Reading University in 1987, phoned him at around 5.30pm on November 21. Mr Carroll told Wolverhampton Crown Court: "Stephen asked, 'Are you sitting down?' I said that I wasn't but I could be.

"I could tell he sounded disturbed. He said, 'I've hurt Mandy, I've hurt her badly. I think I've killed her'.

"I was stunned and I'll remember that call for the rest of my life."

Carroll urged Dowds, who is claiming to have no memory of what had happened, to contact police, which he did just before 7pm.

A tape of the 999 call, in which he said he had killed the mother-of-two with a kitchen knife, was played to the jury yesterday.

Mr Carroll continued today: "I went to bed thinking it couldn't be possible she was dead by his hands.

"I just can't reconcile the person I know with this tragedy, even though I know from his own words. . ."

At this point, Dowds' barrister Miss Sally O'Neill continued: "He accepts that even though he can't remember what happened, it obviously was him who did that to Mandy Finn."

Mr Carroll replied: "Yes."