Father found model daughter dying

Amy Leigh Barnes rang her mother in tears shortly before she was killed

The father of a model, allegedly stabbed to death by her boyfriend, found her lying in the foetal position in a pool of blood, a court has heard.

Andrew Barnes discovered his daughter, Amy Leigh, 19, with her "eyes half open" and "struggling to breathe" at her grandmother's house in Bolton.

She had been slashed and stabbed nine times, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Ricardo Morrison, 21, from Birmingham, denies murder. His mother, Pc Melda Wilks, denies assisting an offender.

'I'll kill him'

Mr Barnes told jurors he entered the terraced house in Moss Street just before midnight on 8 November, 2008, to find his daughter on the floor at the bottom of the stairs.

"She had cuts to her face and she was lying in the foetal position," he said.

He dialled 999 and spoke to the same operator that his daughter had spoken to just minutes before.

I love him, I can't finish with him, I can't keep him away Amy Leigh Barnes' words to her grandmother

The court heard she had called the emergency services pleading with them to help her, saying, "He's stabbed me to death... my boyfriend".

Sgt Andrew Smith was the first officer on the scene.

He told the court that Mr Barnes had heard a loud bang at the back of the property which sounded like a door being shut.

Sgt Smith said: "Mr Barnes said, 'It's him, it will be him, he might still be in the house'.

"Mr Barnes ran outside. I ran after him and I heard him shout, 'Where is he? He's here, I'll kill him'.

"I asked who was he talking about. He said Ricardo Morrison."

'I love him'

Shortly before she was killed Ms Barnes had spoken to her mother, Karyn Killiner, who also gave evidence, telling the court she had had concerns about her daughter's relationship with Mr Morrison.

She told the court that her daughter pleaded with her to come and get her from her grandmother's house.

"She said to me, 'Will you come now?' and started to cry. I said, 'Yes darling'.

"She said she wanted to come home and that he had said some awful things to her. She had told him that he's not going to control her any more."

The couple had been together for a year, and in August 2008, the model's grandmother Catherine Barnes allowed them to stay with her as a "temporary arrangement".

Under cross examination from Johannah Cutts QC, defending Mr Morrison, Mrs Barnes agreed her granddaughter had lots of friends and liked socialising, but the defendant wanted her to spend time with him.

A month after they moved in Ms Barnes asked him to leave her grandmother's house after he told her he was helping a friend move from Birmingham to Manchester - but in fact he had gone out alone to a club.

But she told her grandmother: "I love him, I can't finish with him, I can't keep him away."

The trial continues.