Father stabbed ex on pavement, court told

A jealous father stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death in Blackheath following a two-year relationship of violence, a court heard.

David Palmer, aged 40, who denies murder but admits manslaughter, is alleged to have plunged the kitchen knife into Kerry Smith three times because she denied him access to their baby.

After leaving the 29-year-old mother lying bleeding on the pavement, he is then said to have ran away, punching an innocent bystander as he fled.

Opening the case at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday, Mr Alan Kent QC said the attack was "borne of his jealousy, his desire to determine what clothes she wore, who she spoke to and who she went out with".

The couple, said Mr Kent, had broken up following an "on/off" relationship of more than two years.

During this time he said Palmer had beaten Miss Smith on many occasions, threatening to kill her and even petrol bomb her mother's home.

"He terrorised her to such an extent that she thought one day he would kill her," said Mr Kent.

"That day came."

The court heard Palmer waited for Miss Smith at a bus stop in High Street at around 11.30am on the morning of July 31 last year – a bus stop he knew she used to travel to her mother's house.

Mr Kent said the defendant followed her before knocking her to the ground and stabbing her to death.

Mr Kent added Palmer had accused Miss Smith of taking their one-year-old daughter, called Samantha, away from him.

Palmer of Mincing Lane in Rowley Regis, denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The trial continues.