Fiancee weeps over motorway death

An artist's impression of the Old Bailey courtroom

The fiancee of an unarmed man stabbed to death in a motorway row sobbed as she told a court of the horror of seeing him killed.

Danielle Cable wept as she recalled his dying words: "He stabbed me, Dan. Take his number plate."

And she described how her fiance had tried to kick a knife from his attacker's hand shortly before he died.

Stephen Cameron "tried to kick the knife away"

Stephen Cameron was stabbed to death on 19 May 1996 after a "violent exchange" at the Swanley interchange of the M25 in Kent, the Old Bailey heard.

Kenneth Noye, 52, of Sevenoaks, Kent, denies murder.

At the start of the trial, prosecutor Julian Bevan QC said that Mr Cameron, 21, was stabbed in the heart and liver after a confrontation.

It was a crime of "anger and maybe pride", Mr Bevan said.

"Stephen Cameron was unarmed at the time he was stabbed, indeed he was empty-handed," he told the court.

"The driver of that other vehicle was this defendant Kenneth Noye, as he now admits," he went on.

Mr Cameron had been the passenger in a small red van, driven by Miss Cable, which was travelling behind the defendant's Range Rover Discovery, the court heard.

'Punched in the eye'

Mr Bevan told the jury that the defendant got out of his vehicle to remonstrate with Mr Cameron because he was "angry at the way in which that van had been driven".

Mr Cameron's decision to get out of the van "cost him his life", Mr Bevan said. Miss Cable, 21, clutched a handkerchief as she gave evidence.

She said the driver of a Range Rover had punched Stephen hard in the eye after getting out of his vehicle at traffic lights.

"Stephen stumbled and staggered back. He kicked the other man in his legs," she said.

She said the other man had fumbled in his jacket pockets and went towards the Range Rover.

Four-inch blade

"By this time I had got out of the van. He was telling me to stay back. I was going towards Steve. As I approached, the other man was standing looking at me.

"I saw something in the man's hand which I believed was a knife, so I ran round the other cars screaming and shouting `Can you help us?'

"I saw the blade. It was about four inches long. It was hardly in focus for any time at all."

Miss Cable said her fiance had tried to kick the knife out of the man's hand, by the passenger side of the man's vehicle.

"The man had his hand out - the blade towards Steve. It was so quick. He had his hand out, then I saw him kicking so I ran round trying to get help.

"I was scared. I was screaming and running, calling for someone to help me because I was frightened.

Van 'cut up'

"The next thing I saw was Steve coming towards me round the back of the van. He was clutching his chest. The other man was getting in his jeep and driving off."

She told the court her fiance told her to take the other car's registration number.

She said: "He sort of stumbled to the driver's side of our van. He stumbled to the ground. I felt dreadful."

Miss Cable said immediately before the man had got out of the Range Rover, he had cut them up. Her fiance had been shaking his head about it, she said.

She said she had never seen the other driver before the cars stopped and he got out.

Motorway nerves

During cross-examination from counsel for the defence, Miss Cable said she had never driven on a motorway before and Mr Cameron knew she was a bit nervous.

She denied Mr Cameron had struck the first blow. When asked if her fiance had "something of a temper", she said she had never seen it.

The defendant was arrested in 1998, after he was identified in Spain by Miss Cable, and extradited in May last year, the court was told.

Mr Bevan said that after being traced, the defendant had said that he was not "involved in any way" in the stabbing.