A man who stabbed another man in the neck then walked away today claimed: "More should've been done for him."
Murder-accused Thomas Brown accepts fatally injuring 33-year-old Lee Andrews, but says he acted in self-defence.
Prosecutors allege Brown, 42, had vowed "to make St Helens proud" - by which they say he meant to kill Andrews.
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However, Brown says Andrews "came at him" with a knife because he was angry about how long it had taken him to "score" drugs.
A trial has heard Andrews was stabbed in his right jugular vein at Brown's YMCA flat, at around 10.45pm, on August 2, 2021.
He ran outside and across the road to the YMCA reception to get help, before a witness said Brown "nonchalantly" walked away.
Giving evidence at Liverpool Crown Court, Brown started banging a lectern and said: "More should've been done for him."
He said: "Behind that desk was a first aid kit. There has got to be, in a building like that, first aid. It's standard procedure.
"Why didn't somebody come out who should have been behind that desk on night duty?"
Commenting on CCTV footage that showed him leaving, he said: "It looks like I'm walking out not giving a s***, but that's certainly not the case. Me head had fell off."
The trial heard Andrews had convictions for harassment, threatening behaviour, burglary, shoplifting and theft.
The jury was told Merseyside Police had received information that prior to his death he was involved in "knifepoint street robberies, which were drug related" and was "drug taxing" Thomas Brown and "he was a bully".
Brown has convictions for burglary, theft, shoplifting, criminal damage, having an article with a blade in public - half a pair of scissors - and supplying heroin and crack cocaine.
Under questioning by Andrew Ford, QC, defending, he agreed there was nothing on his record for violence.
He said he grew up in foster care and care homes, didn't attend school for long, had used drugs since he was a child, and in 2000 "got into heroin".
Brown said last summer he was using heroin and crack cocaine, usually drank 8.4% cider, and lived in North Road.
He said fellow drug taker Andrews was "a closed book" and an "overwhelming person", who could be a "bully".
Brown said Andrews sometimes came around to smoke a crack pipe or "sit off", and did that evening, when he himself "wasn't in a good place".
He said he went out at 6.18pm with £10 from Andrews to "score" him "two white" - two £5 bags of crack - but also had to get £10 to buy heroin for himself.
Mr Ford asked how he would have got that money.
Brown replied: "Beg, borrow or steal."
He said he didn't recall meeting an "associate" James Allen near a Morrisons store when out getting the drugs or going back to his home.
Mr Ford said: "Did you say to him at any stage you would do something to make St Helens proud?"
Brown replied: "I certainly wouldn't have thought so. How could anybody be proud over this?"
CCTV footage shows Brown returned to his flat, just after 10.40pm.
He told the jury he walked into his bedroom and saw a knife on a table, so after giving Andrews his crack, asked him: "What's with the knife Lee?"
Brown said: "He told me 'shut up - where the f*** have you been?'"
He said he explained he had been scoring drugs and had to get money, but Andrews said it couldn't have taken that long.
Brown said he saw another knife, which Andrews moved onto the bed where he was sitting, and Andrews angrily accused him of "chipping" - "tampering" with his crack cocaine.
Brown said Andrews started smoking a pipe and he went to his kitchen - where CCTV shows he turned the light on for eight seconds - to get tin foil for his "bobby" - heroin.
He said when he returned to the bedroom, he indicated they should leave, saying "come on Lee, I'm going".
Brown said: "He just flipped and came at me."
He said Andrews might have said "cheeky c**t" as he picked up the knife on the bed and came at him.
Brown said he replied "f*** off Lee" and gave him a two-handed push.
He said as Andrews went backwards towards the bed, he thought Andrews grabbed his left arm, and he "jerked" forwards, but stopped himself with his foot.
He told the jury he grabbed the other knife on the table with his right hand and "just brought it round", before ending up "right on top of the kid".
Mr Ford said: "Did you stab him?"
"Yeah," he replied. "I felt the knife connect."
Brown said he didn't know where he had stabbed Andrews and they became "entangled", before he realised Andrews no longer had a knife, so dropped his blade.
He said: "I had to tell my hand to let go."
Brown said when he left the flat he could hear Andrews, but couldn't see him, and it was only when he got around the corner and saw his hands "caked" in blood he realised the situation was "bad".
He said he should have gone to the "plod shop" - police station - but instead went to see a friend, who he told: "Listen, I think I'm going away for a while."
After he was arrested in the early hours of August 3, he asked for fingerprints to be taken from the other knife.
When interviewed, he gave a prepared statement saying Andrews had been "bullying" him for months and he was "intimidated" by him.
He said Andrews attacked him with a knife and he stabbed him once in self-defence.
Brown today said it wasn't true Andrews had bullied him for months, which was "harsh".
He said: "That doesn't take away he came at me and I pushed him away and I didn't have time to react any other way."
Asked why he picked up the knife, he said "I was just scared, I just reacted", adding: "It's something I wish I never done, I wish it never happened, but unfortunately for me, it has."
Mr Ford said: "When you picked it up, what did you intend?"
Brown said: "Obviously I picked it up in a defensive way. It was just a reaction... it's not like you're going 'I want to hurt this person, I want to kill this person', you're just scared and want him out."
(Proceeding)
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