A FATHER accused of stabbing a near neighbour to death told police officers he feared for his and his daughter's safety, a York jury heard.

Thomas Richardson alleged that strangers tried to force his door open and yelled threats to kill him.

So he fetched a knife from his kitchen and pushed it through a small gap between the door and the door frame. "Then I realised that I had hurt somebody," he said in a police interview read out at York Crown Court.

"I did not know who it was, I did not know any of them. I was in fear of my own safety and that of my daughter."

Richardson, of Primrose Grove, Selby, denies murdering Andy Campbell by stabbing him and an alternative charge of manslaughter.

He told officers that he found it "unreal" that Mr Campbell had come to his house and the only explanation was that he was "as mad as hell".

"We have had our difficulties in the past but never... I can't believe it's him."

In an interview held within hours of the incident Richardson told officers how there was a loud commotion and banging on his door.

The situation became "nastier and nastier".

As he struggled to keep it closed he heard voices on the other side making threats to kill him.

He told the officers how he grabbed a knife with his right hand while he struggled to keep the door closed with his left.

He said: "In between the door opening and shutting I put the knife between the door frame and the door itself.

PC Jonathan Cross, the first police officer on the scene, said Richardson told him that earlier he grabbed a knife from the kitchen and pushed it through the side of the slightly-open door.

Richardson also said he had been having trouble with youths playing outside his house and he had received verbal abuse and threats of assault from them.

Stephen Boyes, a neighbour on his way home from work, said he saw three men inside Richardson's garden, one of whom was kicking the door.

Moments later he saw an arm come out of the door, but could not see it holding anything.

He said: "As the arm came out of the door one of the men seemed to jump backwards and one of them dropped.

"One of the males shouted: 'He's been stabbed.'"

The trial continues.

Updated: 11:26 Tuesday, February 05, 2002