A man has gone on trial charged with murdering his teenage partner by stabbing her to death in a row at the makeshift camp where they lived next to a railway station.
Jason Flore, 26, is charged with murdering Stephanie Marie, 19, a young mother, in Crawley last August. They had a child together. He denies murder.
Patrick Dennis, prosecuting, told Hove Crown Court, that Flore told police that Stephanie Marie stabbed herself.
She died from a 13cm deep wound to the chest that punctured her aorta, the biggest artery in the body, close to her heart.
Mr Dennis she had been seen with a knife earlier during an argument between the couple but she had a defensive wound between her left thumb and index finger.
The barrister also told the jury that Flore now blamed a couple living in the neighbouring tent in the makeshift camp – Yannick and Claribelle Francois – for Stephanie Marie’s death.
Mr Dennis said that security camera footage showed Flore dumping his tracksuit trousers in bushes.
They were covered in Stephanie Marie’s blood which he said came from wounds that she had suffered in the hours before her death.
In a 999 call, Flore said that his name was Prince, and along with his other claims, Mr Dennis said: “It’s a real tissue of lies that the defendant has told both the ambulance service and the police.”
He told the jury that CCTV cameras showed the defendant’s movements as he left the campsite by Crawley railway station to get away from the murder scene and dispose of the evidence.
“The knife,” Mr Dennis said, “has never been found by the police.
“Any conception that this was self-inflicted by Stephanie Marie is misconceived.”
Benn Maguire, defending, told the jury that Flore had an argument with Stephanie Marie at around 7am on Monday 18 August last year. This was shortly before she died.
Mr Maguire said: Stephanie Marie had cut her leg during this argument. This wound, together with a wound from an earlier head injury, were the sources of the blood on Mr Flore.”
The latter part of the argument – in Mauritian French creole – was seen and heard by a passerby, Kamila Kuczyk.
Mr Maguire said: “She saw the deceased with a knife in her right hand and Mr Flore already had blood on his trousers. Mr Flore didn’t have a knife.
“Then, Mr Flore left the scene. The defence case is that the deceased must then have been stabbed by Yannick or Claribelle Francois.”
He said that Flore had even taken Stephanie Marie to Crawley Hospital earlier, at about 1am, after others attacked her during a barbecue at the camp.
She was said to have been drunk. Those who attacked her included Yannick or Claribelle Francois, Mr Maguire said.
The trial continues.
