Taylor Fenwick denies blaming Luke Miller for fatal incident

Prosecution barrister David Brooke KC accused Taylor Fenwick, 22, of “concocting” a story about Luke Miller, 23, trying to break into Fenwick’s flat in the minutes before he died.

He claimed Fenwick took a hunting knife and a kitchen knife out of his flat to attack Mr Miller and stabbed him to death with the first one.

Fenwick denied all the allegations and said: “It sounds more like a Hollywood film to take two knives out and attack someone. I can’t see the logic in that.”

He also denied  evidence from a prosecution witness who alleged she saw Fenwick take the hunting knife out of a drawer and tell her to “stay, don’t f…. move from here” before leaving the flat.

Police found the hunting knife in a street bin, with evidence on it showing it had been used to kill Mr Miller, the jury heard. They found the kitchen knife in the hallway of the flat where Fenwick says he put it after the fatal incident. Fenwick, of Rosemary Court, Commercial Street, Tadcaster, denies murder.

Cross-examining Fenwick, Mr Brooke alleged that Fenwick had lied when he claimed Mr Miller had been very aggressive in the hours leading up to his death and had made up an account that “essentially it was all Luke’s fault”.

“I would not put the blame on Luke in that way,” replied Fenwick.

Luke Miller (Image: North Yorkshire Police)

Mr Brooke alleged that Fenwick had given a “graphic” account of accidentally stabbing Mr Miller with the kitchen knife to police on Boxing Day and seeing blood in his mouth immediately after he collapsed on the pavement outside his flat.

But in the witness box, he had alleged he felt “resistance” during a struggle with Mr Miller on the stairs outside his flat while he was holding Mr Miller by the collar with the kitchen knife in his hand close to Mr Miller’s face, and had not been aware that Mr Miller was injured until he saw blood on the kitchen knife in his flat afterwards.

The prosecution allege the stabbing left a long streak of Mr Miller's blood on Fenwick's jacket.

Fenwick alleged in evidence he and Mr Miller were struggling when someone he didn’t see stabbed him with the hunting knife. He told Leeds Crown Court he didn’t see anyone with the hunting knife at any time.

Prosecution witnesses who were with the two men at the flat all denied defence suggestions they had stabbed Mr Miller.

Fenwick claimed that he never handled the hunting knife believed to be the murder weapon in the hours around Mr Miller’s death shortly after 7am on Boxing Day morning and he never went to the street bin.

He denied prosecution suggestions he had tried to prevent police talking to two prosecution witnesses who allegedly saw him at or near the bin by not telling police they were present at the scene.

Both witnesses have told the jury that they were in the flat at the time of the alleged break-in and didn’t hear shouting, scuffling or a disturbance. They have also told the jury they left the scene before the emergency services arrived because they were scared of Fenwick.

The trial continues.