I warned accused over relationship says pal

A Wolverhampton College manager was warned his violent relationship with his lecturer lover was "not healthy" before he went on to stab her to death, a court heard this afternoon.

Jonathan Harris told jurors he urged friend and colleague Stephen Dowds to end his relationship with Mandy

Finn because of repeated drink-fuelled violence she inflicted on him. Dowds, aged 49, denies murder but admits stabbing Miss Finn some 60 times at the home which they shared in Newhampton Road West, Whitmore Reans.

Dowds, a student services manager and former Regis School English teacher, claims he has no memory of attacking her.

Today, Mr Harris, who works at the college as a project co-ordinator, said Dowds arrived at work one day with a black eye.

Dowds told friends he had walked into a cupboard door but Harris pressed him and he admitted that 40-year-old Miss Finn had attacked him, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

Mr Harris said that on another occasion, Dowds had told him the mother of two had cut his hand with a knife.

He told jurors this afternoon: "We talked about the violence, and as his friend I told him I didn't think it was a healthy relationship to be in. In part, he took the advice, and conversations were had between himself and Mandy.

"We had a lot of conversations about ending the relationship. We started to consider the wording of a text to send. We wrote the text together but we didn't send it there, and in hindsight, I guess it wasn't sent."

Mr Harris said that in the days before psychology lecturer Miss Finn was killed, the pair were "all loved up".

Mr Harris said Dowds, who had been seeking help for his alcohol intake at the time of the killing, was not a big drinker when he first knew him, but that he had started on vodka when he met Miss Finn.

Students had complained about the pair having a "morning after" smell of alcohol at college, said Mr Harris.

The trial continues.