A man was brutally stabbed to death by his ex-girlfriend’s new lover, a jury was told.

Stuart Slade, 35, was found dying in a Brighton street, bleeding heavily from fatal knife wounds.

Michael Bishop, 26, who is on trial for murder, is alleged to have later telephoned his girlfriend and said: “I did it for you.”

Bishop, of no fixed address, denies murder at Lewes Crown Court.

The jury was told Mr Slade was killed on December 30 2008.

He was found by passersby at about 2.30am lying on his back, with his eyes open, in Hampton Place, off Western Road.

Despite attempts to resuscitate him, Mr Slade, who lived at the YMCA hostel in Old Steine, Brighton, was pronounced dead at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

He had been repeatedly stabbed in the head, back and chest. One wound had penetrated his heart.

The court was told the two men had never met before the night of the killing.

But Paul Lewis QC, prosecuting, said the motive for the fatal attack may have been jealously or insecurity relating to Mr Slade’s former girlfriend Helen Joyce.

He said the couple, who had a young son together, split in 2007.

On the night of his death Mr Slade had tried to contact Miss Joyce, who lived in Davigdor Road, Hove.

He said: “On the last day of his life he made a number of attempts to contact Helen Joyce. Maybe he was making a nuisance of himself. She refused to answer his calls or speak to him.”

Mr Lewis said Mr Slade left a message on her phone just after midnight telling her to meet him at the Kitchen Bar, in Preston Street, Brighton.

He said he needed her help and he warned her he would never talk to her again if she did not turn up.

Mr Lewis said Miss Joyce either told Bishop, her current boyfriend, that Mr Slade was at the bar or he retrieved her messages on her phone.

He said about 45 minutes later Bishop arrived at the Kitchen Bar. The two men were filmed on the bar’s CCTV but in the hour and a half Bishop was there he never made any attempt to speak to Mr Slade.

But he did call Miss Joyce and ask her about Mr Slade’s appearance. Mr Lewis said: “It appears he was trying to confirm the identity of Mr Slade.”

Mr Lewis said Bishop was watching Mr Slade and waiting for him to leave.

When the bar closed at about 2pm, Mr Slade left and was followed by Bishop.

Mr Lewis said: “He lay in wait for him to leave the bar and then attacked him.

“It was a planned and brutal murder committed late at night in a public place.”

Mr Lewis said after the killing Bishop went on the run and about four days later he allegedly called Miss Joyce telling her: “I did it for you. He was going to hurt you.”

He said Bishop fled to Cyprus using another person’s passport but was arrested in October last year when he returned to Stansted Airport.

Following his arrest, Bishop allegedly told police he had acted in self-defence.

But Mr Lewis said: “This is not a case of self-defence but a case of cold-blooded and brutal murder.”

The trial continues.