THE girlfriend of a man stabbed in an East Oxford churchyard said her partner’s alleged murderer had told him he “killed people for fun”.

Robert Lee Chin, 49, of no fixed abode, denies fatally stabbing Devon McPherson in SS Mary and John Churchyard, in Cowley Road, Oxford, in May.

But Mr McPherson’s partner Annette Stanmore told Oxford Crown Court today her boyfriend and Chin – also known as Champagne – had rowed a week before the incident.

Miss Stanmore told the court the two men had argued about a bicycle she had lent to Chin.

“He confronted him about it and they had an argument,” she said.

“Devon told me Champagne said something like ‘I kill people for fun’, then Devon turned around and said ‘well if it’s war you want, then it’s war’.”

She told the jury her boyfriend and the defendant were both class A drug dealers in the East Oxford area, which was how she got to know them.

Miss Stanmore admitted she was a long-term drug user with a string of convictions and had previously given false identities to police.

But when questioned by Richard Benson, defending, she denied concocting a story about the events leading up to her boyfriend’s death.

Mr McPherson was pronounced dead in hospital on May 18 after staggering into The Regal nightclub, in Cowley Road, with blood gushing from his neck.

Prosecutor John Price told the jury his last words, to Regal receptionist Rukhsana Ali, were: “I have been stabbed” followed by something that sounded like “champagne bottle”.

Both Mr McPherson and Chin went under several different aliases and had more than one mobile phone each, the court heard.

Mr Price said evidence would be heard from Stephanie Brandish, who was drinking in the churchyard on the morning of the murder and heard raised voices.

The jury was told she saw three men, one of whom moved his arm in a swinging motion towards one of the others. She later identified the man as Chin.

Mr Price said: “Although what took place in that churchyard was not itself planned, nonetheless there is some evidence the defendant had decided in advance he was going to sort out the deceased and stab him with a knife.

“There is evidence before it happened, as it happened, and after it happened, all of which points to the fact that it was the defendant who was responsible for this stabbing.”

The trial continues.

fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk