THE MAN accused of attempting to murder his girlfriend in the bath says she was the one who had the knife.

Liam Hanley claims he acted in self defence after the bloody incident inside the flat of Sarah Harries at Sussex Wharf in Shoreham last September.

In the witness box he admitted that he had inflicted injuries on Ms Harries, but denied taking the knife into the bathroom, and denied having any intent to kill her.

Instead he said she was the one who hurled herself at him with the knife, and said her injuries were caused during a tussle throughout the flat.

The unemployed 32-year-old said Ms Harries was angry about his relationships with other women, and said she had taken crack cocaine on the day.

Previously, Rachel Beckett, prosecuting, said Hanley had launched the attack in the bathroom, slitting her throat in the bath and leaving Ms Harries with 39 separate stab wounds.

In the witness box, Hanley said he had arranged to meet a drug dealer listed in his phone as Mark Worthing. He also said he had not seen notifications on his phone believed to be from other women with whom he had dalliances, including one woman listed as Jody XXX.

Answering questions in the dock, Hanley said: “I was on the way back from the toilet from the en-suite when she saw my shadow in the doorway and called me into the bathroom.

“She seemed alright, there was nothing to alarm me that anything was going to happen. She was holding a large towel draped over her arm.

“I asked her what was up, and almost immediately she dropped the towel and thrust a knife at me. More or less at my groin area. It is all a blur from that point. I remember grabbing hold of the blade and trying to grab the knife.

“She said something about my phone and Jody.”

Rebecca Upton, defending, asked him if he launched a deliberate and repeated attack on Ms Harries, he said he did not. She asked him: “Were you trying to hurt her?”

“No, not at all,” he said.

Hanley said: “She was in the middle of the bathroom, she called me in. The reasons for the attack were completely on her behalf.

“It all happened in such a short space of time. It seems unrealistic for that to happen. I never wished her any harm or injury. The reason to do this was hers, what happened, has happened.”

Rachel Beckett, cross examining, asked him: “Did you try to kill Sarah Harries on September 4?”

“No I didn’t,” he replied.

“You took the knife into the bathroom with her, you assaulted her and slit her throat,” she said.

“No,” he replied.

She asked him about the fact that he had arranged the drug deal for the crack and prepared it in the flat before the bloody incident.

“I suggest to you that you were the one who bought the drugs,” she said.

“That is incorrect,” he replied.

Ms Beckett also questioned his links to women named as Lilith, Amy, Jody, and Andrea, and whether he had boasted to friends about who he slept with.

“Possibly,” he replied.

After the incident he left the Shoreham area, sparking an armed police hunt to find him. He later handed himself in to police in Slough, Berkshire.

Hanley denies attempted murder. The trial continues.