DJ denies killing ex-partner's lover

A disc jockey stabbed his ex-girlfriend's new lover to death at her home in a late-night row, a court has heard.

Donald Thompson, 31, known as DJ Lyrical, repeatedly knifed Patrick Shakespeare in the neck and back, a jury at Leicester Crown Court was told.

Mr Thompson's ex-girlfriend, Natalie Baldwin, pulled her two oldest children out of the room as the row broke out.

When she returned, Mr Shakespeare, 32, was lying on the settee surrounded by blood.

Volatile relationship

Mr Thompson denies murder, saying he acted in self defence.

The court heard that Ms Baldwin and a friend went to the Media club in Nottingham, where Mr Thompson was working as a DJ, on January 24, 2002.

Frances Oldham QC, prosecuting, said: "Their relationship was a volatile one.

"They had separated the previous autumn and had not spoken until that night.

"That evening they spoke about their three children and when the club closed they left together and caught a taxi."

When they arrived at the house in Nottingham, they found that their two oldest children, aged seven and five, were still up.

Bloody cushions

A little while later Mr Shakespeare, the father of Ms Baldwin's fourth and youngest child, entered the living room.

A scuffle broke out between Mr Shakespeare and Mr Thompson, with each pushing and shoving the other, the court heard.

When Ms Baldwin returned to the room, Mr Shakespeare was motionless, leaning forward over the back of the settee, with blood on the cushions and clearly he had been injured, Miss Oldham said.

Police and paramedics were called and Mr Shakespeare was taken to Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre, where he was pronounced dead.

Mr Thompson handed himself in to police the next day.

The trial continues.