A former pharmacist has gone on trial accused of murdering his younger brother by stabbing him and leaving him to bleed to death.
Inderjit Klare allegedly attacked Jasreet, 40, in their family fish and chip restaurant following a night out. The 43-year-old is alleged to have repeatedly stabbed him with a kitchen knife and waited 90 minutes before calling for an ambulance.
Teesside Crown Court heard how two other men, who had been invited back to the restaurant for a drink, escaped through the window of the restaurant in Bishop Auckland, County Durham.
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Jamie Hill, prosecuting, told the court how one of the stab wounds severed an artery in his brother's right arm, which led to his death. He said that Jasreet, who was known to his family and friends as Jas, could have survived if he had been given first aid straight away.
He said, before ringing for an ambulance, Klare made an attempt to clean up. Mr Hill said he used a hose pipe on his brother, put the knife in a container and moved a CCTV recording into a cupboard.
He told the jury: "It was the early hours of the 9th October last year when this defendant Inderjit Klare attacked his brother Jasreet. He attacked him with a kitchen knife inflicting several stab wounds. One of them severed an artery in his brother's right arm. His brother bled to death."
Klare, of Eve Lane, Spennymoor, County Durham, denies murder and is being tried by a jury at the court in Middlesbrough.
Mr Hill said the defendant is an "intelligent man" who went to university and qualified as a pharmacist. However, around five years ago, he was found to have stolen and sold drugs from the pharmacy where he was working and was sent to prison.
He said: "According to one of the defendant's friends he was a changed person after his release from prison. He was drinking to excess and he was taking drugs, particularly cocaine. He was also gambling. He very often found himself short of money."
He said that Klare, who is known to family and friends as 'Inde', was working as the manager of their family business - Carter's Fish Restaurant and Takeaway in Bishop Auckland - when the incident occurred in October last year.
The court heard how Klare and his brother had a "volatile" relationship and Jas had been ostracised by his family as he had left his wife and was living with a new partner Emma Hallas.
In a witness statement, read to the court, Ms Hallas said she has two children with Jas. She said she had fallen pregnant with their first child while he was still married and his parents did not approve of their relationship.
Mr Hill said that Jas, who also drank alcohol and took cocaine, did not feel that Klare had offered him much support during the difficulties within the family and they would argue often. He said: "According to their friends Indi and Jas has come to blows more than once previously."
The court heard how on October 8 last year the brothers had gone out for drinks together in Houghton-le-Spring with a friend before driving back to Bishop Auckland. They continued to drink and at some point they had taken cocaine.
They began drinking in The Sportsman Inn in the market place with two local men and when the bar closed at 3am, they invited them back to the family restaurant for another drink.
Mr Hill said: "Within minutes of entering the shop Jas appears to ask his brother where his 'stuff' was and Indi said it was all gone and then they started arguing."
He told the court how Klare allegedly picked up a kitchen knife and the two men tried to intervene but they quickly became frightened of their own safety.
The court heard how one of the men described how Klare had his brother on the ground and, when he last saw him as he tried to leave, he was reportedly trying to stab Jas with the knife.
Mr Hill said: "They didn't see the full event, they ran to get out of the front door but it was locked." One of the men ran back to try to get the key to get out of the door but failed.
Mr Hill said CCTV footage will show both of them moving through the window of the shop. He said: "They were keen to get out that they knocked out the window to get out."
The two men left nine minutes after they first entered the premises.
Mr Hill said: "It will be another hour and a half before Indi called the emergency services for an ambulance. By that stage his brother was dead.
"Jas had numerous injuries. There were multiple stab wounds, several to his back, one to his right foot, one to his left forearm which went in one side and out the other, severing an artery."
The prosecutor told the court how the fatal injury to Jas' arm could have been treated with first aid. He said: "it would have taken him a while to bleed to death.
"The defendant waited the best part of 90 minutes before calling for help. During that time he must have been aware that his brother was bleeding to death."
The court heard how Klare tried to ring his father twice and made an attempt to clean up before dialling 999. Mr Hill said: "He told the operator that his brother had been trying to fight with him and now he wasn't breathing."
The two men who escaped from the restaurant turned up later that day at the police station to tell officers what they had saw. The jury heard how they said they had been too scared to go straight to the police station from the fish and chip shop.
In her witness statement, mum-of-two Ms Hallas said that Jas and Klare did not get on and during a previous occasion, around four years earlier, they had both gone to hospital with physical injuries.
Ms Hallas said that when a detective constable told her that Jas had died she said she immediately responded by asking "Was it Inde?"
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