Pub attack shown at murder trial

A pub manager was filmed on CCTV as he strangled his fiancee in a "sinister and grim" attack, a court has heard.

David Kirsch, 42, denies murdering Julie Butler, 49, last October. She died of strangulation in the Imperial Standard pub in Aldershot, Hampshire.

The prosecution told Winchester Crown Court the CCTV footage showed Mr Kirsch putting his hand around his partner's throat causing her to pass out.

Jurors were told on Tuesday Ms Butler's body went undiscovered for two days.

Janice Brennan, prosecuting, said Mr Kirsch had drunk six Jack Daniels and four pints of Kronenbourg lager before hitting his fiancee with a bar stool and leaving her to die over a period of 21 minutes.

Kill himself

Her body was discovered on 10 October - two days after the alleged attack - by the area manager of the brewery and a colleague.

They entered the pub through an open window having been unable to contact Ms Butler.

Mrs Brennan said that before discovering the body, the two men found notes left by the accused in which he confessed to killing Ms Butler but saying he had not intended to.

One note read: "I do not know what I have done but I do not deserve to live."

The court heard that after police sealed off the scene, Mr Kirsch arrived holding a craft knife to his own throat and had to be tackled to the ground and arrested.

The prosecution claim Mr Kirsch told police he wanted to kill himself and wanted to donate his organs in order to turn a "negative into a positive".

He also told police that Ms Butler had attacked him in a drunken rage because he had flirted with a customer in the pub and that he had only acted in self-defence.

The trial continues.