A mineworker tried to help a dying man immediately after he knifed him, a jury has heard.

In a 999 call, qualified medic Thomas Edward Richardson, 43, told a control room operator he had stabbed a man and asked for an ambulance and police to go to his home, York Crown Court heard.

Giving evidence in his defence, he said he did not go outside to victim Andy Campbell because a neighbour persuaded him to stay in his house.

He alleged that just before the stabbing, three or four men had been trying to break into his house yelling threats to kill.

Richardson, of Primrose Grove, Selby, denies murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.

"I messed a lot of lives up yesterday including my own," he told police the morning after Mr Campbell's death. "Why did they have to come at me? Why did they have to charge down my drive?"

He also told detectives: "I just feel very sorry because there has been a loss of life. That is something I will have to live with.

"I was scared to death. I haven't been so terrified in my life."

Giving evidence in his defence, Richardson described how the men tried to push his door open.

As he held it shut with one hand, he reached into his kitchen for a sharp knife which he had intended to use for cutting a lemon.

Without giving a warning, he thrust it three or four times through the partly opened door until the people outside stopped pushing.

"Did you intend to kill anyone?" asked defence counsel James Goss QC.

"No," replied Richardson.

"Or cause anyone serious harm?"

"No."

"Or cause anyone any harm?"

"No."

From the witness box, he said that he did not know the dead man was Mr Campbell until early the next morning.

He denied prosecution suggestions that he had put the knife ready for use if anyone came to the house. He said he had tried to get his medikit from his car but was told to stay indoors.

He said he had suffered harassment from neighbours and problems with children playing football against his house wall, but denied that he was "at the end of his tether", or had sworn at or threatened children earlier that evening or shouted at a child from his window.

The jury heard several written character references, including from a magistrate and a former county councillor.

The trial continues.

Updated: 11:41 Wednesday, February 06, 2002