Stabbing was 'worst horror movie'

Flt Lt Stephen Keen was stabbed in the throat and neck

A wife whose husband is accused of killing her lover said she felt "touched by evil" when she witnessed the stabbing in her Devon home.

RAF officer Stephen Keen, 54, had a dozen stab wounds to his neck, throat and hands from jilted postal worker Francesco Matta, 56, a court heard.

Susan Matta, 53, described the scene as "the worst horror movie" with "blood everywhere".

Mr Matta, from Sardinia, pleaded not guilty to murder at Exeter Crown Court.

It was when Mrs Matta was living in Sardinia with her husband that she got in touch with Mr Keen, three decades after she had last spoken to him, the jury heard.

The court was told how on a visit to the UK Mrs Matta phoned her husband and said that she could not be married to him any longer.

'Strong bond'

Mrs Matta said: "I told him there was somebody else. There would be a letter. I did not want to hurt him."

In her letter she had written about a man "from many years ago with whom I have a strong bond, and with whom I may have a future here."

She wrote: "I hope you will not hate me, I cannot help my feelings. I can no longer be your wife. It is not your fault, it is mine."

Nobody said anything, there were just awful animal grunting noises coming from them" Mrs Susan Matta

The court heard how in June 2006 Mrs Matta and Mr Keen bought a house in Tiverton, but Mr Matta kept texting his wife telling her how he cried "almost every night" and that he still loved her.

Mrs Matta had her last conversation with her husband on 2 July. Four days later, the jury was told, Mr Matta turned up at the Tiverton property.

The court heard that when Mr Keen asked Mr Matta to leave, he was attacked with a knife.

Mrs Matta said: "Nobody said anything, there were just awful animal grunting noises coming from them."

She told the jury "I felt touched by evil that day."

She said the man she saw in the front room that evening was not the man she had known and loved.

Asked in re-examination by prosecutor Martin Meeke QC: "What was the source of that evil?" she said: "Him, and me trying to stop him doing what he did."

Mr Meeke had told the jury that Mr Matta admitted killing Mr Keen, but had said he should be convicted of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility caused by depression.

The trial continues.