A YOUNG man accused of stabbing his friend to death had been searching the internet for knives, a jury has heard.

Forensic tests revealed that Taylor Fenwick, 22, had been drinking alcohol in the hours leading up to Luke Miller’s death and also found evidence of him taking cocaine and ketamine.

Fenwick, of Rosemary Court, off Commercial Street, Tadcaster, denies murdering Mr Miller, 23, shortly after 7am on Boxing Day outside his flat.

The prosecution allege he stabbed Mr Miller with a hunting knife.

Reading agreed facts to the jury, prosecution junior barrister Alasdair Campbell said when police searched the web history of Fenwick’s phone, they found he had been googling knives and found he had looked on knifewarehouse.co.uk 13 times.

He had also searched on amazon.com for “OTF” or “out the front” knives which are illegal in the UK. 

Fenwick’s emails revealed he had bought a legal small folding knife on amazon.com on August 11.

Fibres taken from a hunting knife found in a street bin near where Mr Miller collapsed matched those of the jacket he was wearing at the time and according to a forensic scientist “provided very strong support for the assertion that the hunting knife cut the coat,” said Mr Campbell.

The jury at Leeds Crown Court heard the emergency services were called to the scene immediately after Mr Miller collapsed in Commercial Street on December 26 and that Fenwick was arrested very soon after police arrived.

The jurors were told a blood test taken from Fenwick five and a half hours after the emergency services were called revealed he had taken cocaine during the night.

According to a toxicologist, Fenwick “may have been experiencing some of the associated effects of cocaine at the time of the incident,” Mr Campbell told the jury.

Continuing to read the agreed facts, he said that a blood test taken from Fenwick five and a half hours after the emergency services were called gave a reading of 82 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit for driving is 80.

The toxicologist had concluded that though it is possible to do a back calculation to decide the level of alcohol in a person’s blood at a time before the test was taken, that was not possible in Fenwick’s case because it wasn’t known when he had taken his last drink.

A urine test taken 10 and a half hours after the emergency services were called revealed ketamine. The amount was not enough to suggest Fenwick had taken ketamine that night, said Mr Campbell.

The trial continues.