Angry Jimmy Waite told friends that Barry Cooper “would be dead” by the end of the night the day Mr Cooper was fatally stabbed, Winchester Crown Court heard today.

Karl Quincey, 33, of Longcroft Avenue, Devizes, denies murdering Mr Cooper in the hallway of a block of flats in Victoria Road, Devizes, at about 4.30pm on June 27 last year.

Mr Waite, 62, returned home on June 27 last year, the day Mr Cooper was stabbed, after a holiday in Butlins in Minehead to find his flat in Victoria Road, Devizes, had been burgled and his XBox and £1 coin box to control the TV, had been stolen.

The court heard he had been arrested by police on suspicion of the grievous bodily harm of Mr Cooper because of the comments he made but he was released without charge.

Steven Stiles, a neighbour of Mr Waite, said Mr Waite was at his flat soon after he returned home from holiday.

Mr Stiles said: “Jimmy was very, very angry because his flat had been burgled. He said Barry would be dead by the end of the night but Jimmy wouldn’t hurt a fly he was so fragile.”

Mr Stiles said he had heard on the grapevine that Barry Cooper had committed the burglary at Mr Waite’s flat but that Mr Cooper was saying that Karl Quincey was the offender.

Mr Waite gave evidence yesterday at court and said he wasn’t thinking when he made the comment about Barry Cooper being dead by the end of the evening.

He was asked by prosecution barrister Stuart Jones QC if he had killed Barry Cooper or put anyone else up to the killing to which he replied no.

Mr Waite, who gave evidence from behind a screen, said he saw Quincey at Steven Stiles’s flat before the stabbing had happened and said Quincey was angry.

During his evidence Mr Waite at first said Quincey did not visit him at his flat after the stabbing but after his witness statement was read to him he agreed that Quincey had visited him.

He said Quincey told him he had changed his clothes and said “justice must be done”.

Mr Waite thought Quincey might have stabbed Mr Cooper.

Mr Stiles later told the jury today of the horrifying moment he saw Karl Quincey cut Barry Cooper’s throat.

He said he was standing in the doorway of his flat. Barry Cooper was outside in the passageway when, without warning, Quincey came out and grabbed Mr Cooper.

Mr Stiles said: “Karl grabbed hold of Barry, pulled his head back and cut his throat in front of me."

The trial continues

Read Steven Stiles' full testimony in tomorrow's Gazette & Herald