Murder trial told meet-up led to lovers’ tryst (From The Argus)
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Brighton murder trial told meet-up led to lovers’ tryst
4:37pm Friday 26th October 2012 in News By Ben James
A man who dropped off his best friend at a lover’s flat the night he was stabbed to death told a jury the last thing his pal said was “I love you”.
An emotional Alan Breen described how Graeme Pethard wrapped his arms around him before walking into the Bevendean flat of Kayleigh Chessell on May 5.
Hours later Ms Chessell’s husband Carlo Dawes, 35, returned home to find the pair.
Dawes is accused of grabbing a kitchen knife and plunging it into the victim’s stomach and neck in a jealous rage.
Lewes Crown Court was told that Liverpool pair Mr Breen and Mr Pethard had been friends since the age of eight and would see each other every day.
In late April the two along with another friend went on a short break to Brighton where the victim had arranged to meet with Ms Chessell.
The court was told that the pair had met through a Facebook memorial page to a mutual friend earlier in the year.
Mr Pethard, Ms Chessell and friends spent the evening and night of May 3 drinking together.
Mr Breen told the court how they were “all over each other” and that he had seen them kissing.
The following day he said that he attempted to sober up Mr Pethard for the drive back to Liverpool that night.
Mr Breen said: “I said, ‘Come on let’s go home and he turned around and said, ‘What have I got to go home for? I’m staying here. I’m going to stay with Kayleigh’.”
Mr Breen tried to persuade Mr Pethard to change his mind but undeterred he agreed to drop him off and travel back to Liverpool without him.
He told the jury that he gave his friend £200 for the train before driving him to Ms Chessell’s Taunton Road flat.
He said: “He got out the car, put his arms around me and said ‘I love you Breeny’.
“I gave him his bags and he walked down the stairs – that was the last time I saw him.”
Dawes denies murder.
The trial continues.
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