The man accused of murdering Afghan refugee Enayit Khalili threatened to kill members of his own wife’s family, Oxford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Martin Joyce, 22, of Larch Hill, Bradford, West Yorkshire, denies murdering Mr Khalili, a cleaner at Cowley police station.

Mr Khalili died from a single stab wound to the abdomen at his home in Fiennes Road, Rose Hill, Oxford, in March 2007.

Joyce’s then-fiancee, Lisa Maughan, lived opposite Mr Khalili at the time of his death.

Yesterday, Ms Maughan’s nephew, Thomas McDonoghue, told the court he had heard the defendant threatening his mother in November or December last year at their home in Ireland.

Mr McDonoghue said: “He said to my ma that he would kill my ma and kill my granny the way that he killed my granny’s next door neighbour.”

His grandmother lived in the same road as Mr Khalili.

He denied defending barrister Richard Benson’s suggestion he and his family were telling lies because there was “bad blood” between Joyce’s family since he married Ms Maughan.

The court also heard from Mr McDonoghue’s mother, Kathleen McDonoghue, who told police in interview Joyce was “a real psychopath”. She denied using the murder as an opportunity to have Joyce punished because she disliked him.

The case continues.