THE father who was stabbed through the heart in York chatted normally to a friend only hours before his death, a jury heard today.

Simon Gilchrist's friend, Claire Musgrove, told Leeds Crown Court that she met him at the foot of the stairs leading to his flat in Bell Farm Avenue shortly after 11.30pm, on July 26.

He was having a cigarette and finding out what was happening in the street.

She said Mr Gilchrist seemed fine and normal.

Caroline Mawhood, 21, has denied murdering the 23-year-old father of her child.

The court heard yesterday that she told police officers she could not remember attacking her boyfriend after returning from a night at a Bishopthorpe pub in a paralytic state last July.

William Lowe, QC, prosecuting, said neighbours reportedly overheard Gilchrist telling Mawhood, who was on anti-depressants and had an acknowledged drink problem: "Look at the state you are in."

Shortly afterwards, the fatally-wounded 23-year-old collapsed as he made a 999 call for help from a phone box outside their flat in Bell Farm Avenue, York.

Witnesses saw Mawhood follow him into the street holding the bloody knife in her raised arm, alleged Mr Lowe.

Mr Gilchrist was declared dead less than an hour later in York Hospital, despite efforts to save him.

Mr Lowe told the trial that when police turned up at the flat, Mawhood admitted she had stabbed her boyfriend and asked detectives if he was dead. She was arrested and told her interviewers: "He went for me. I was defending myself. It was an accident." But she said she could not remember what happened because she was too drunk, said Mr Lowe.

"The fact you are drunk does not make it an accident," he told the jury.

"If you stab someone in the chest, what else can your intention be?"

Rebecca Adams, who had been with Mawhood at The Marcia pub on the evening of the stabbing, described her state as "the worst she had ever seen her", said the barrister.

The trial continues.

Updated: 16:37 Wednesday, January 12, 2005