A GRANDAD was stabbed to death outside his Basingstoke home, a murder trial jury has heard.

William Smith, 28, allegedly plunged a kitchen knife five times into Stephan Hollow outside the 53-year-old’s home in Blackdown Close, Buckskin, in the early hours of August 19, last year.

Jurors at Winchester Crown Court heard that Smith went to the house to speak to his ex-partner Megan Hards and her new boyfriend, Tyler Hollow, who is Mr Hollow’s 22-year-old son.

William Mousley, prosecuting, said Smith cut Tyler Hollow in the face during an argument, which caused Stephan Hollow to come down from his bedroom to ask Smith to leave. It was then that the fatal stabbing took place, he said.

In opening the trial on Tuesday, Mr Mousley told the jury: “His (Smith’s) actions were deliberate, intended to cause serious injury, and his behaviour before, during and after the incident demonstrate that there was no justification for him repeatedly stabbing Stephan Hollow and wounding Tyler Hollow.

“Had there been any justification, he could have said so at the time. He did not.”

Smith, of Pershore Road, Popley, had never met Stephan or Tyler Hollow until that night, the court heard.

He had been in a relationship with Miss Hards since 2007, and they had two children together, but they grew apart when Smith was arrested at their home in February last year, the court heard.

It was in July 2013 that Miss Hards started a relationship with Tyler Hollow – a relationship Smith was suspicious of, Mr Mousley said.

He told the jury that in the days leading up to Mr Hollow’s death, Smith was in regular contact with Miss Hards, “behaving somewhat irrationally, sometimes upset and angry”.

Smith, by now living at May Place hostel, in Basingstoke town centre, went to his brother’s house in Berwyn Close, Buckskin, on the night of Sunday, August 18, where he drank vodka and took cocaine, the court heard.

Just before 5am the next day, he turned up at Stephan Hollow’s house, and spoke to Tyler Hollow and Miss Hards outside the home, accusing Tyler of taking his family, the jury heard.

It was then that Tyler Hollow received a cut to his face, Mr Mousley said, before Stephan Hollow came down and tried to push Smith out of the garden.

He added: “When Tyler came back out of the house (after receiving his cut), he saw his father was falling forwards towards William Smith, and then he saw him (Smith) walking off, holding the knife before running away.”

Mr Mousley said Miss Hards and Stephan Hollow’s partner Sadie Maggs tried resuscitating the fatally injured dad, but one of the stab wounds had severed his aorta, leading to massive blood loss.

Emergency crews were called to the scene but Mr Hollow was later pronounced dead at Basingstoke hospital.

Mr Mousley said Smith discarded the knife, and changed and cleaned his clothes, before handing himself in to the police five hours later.

At first, he ran to his brother’s house, where he was heard to say he had stabbed someone, the court heard.

He then went to the house of his mother Joyce Smith, in Dorset Crescent, Buckskin, who called the police, asking them to find her son. Officers later found diluted blood stains, with Stephan Hollow’s DNA, on a wall above a recently-used bath.

At 9am, the court heard, Smith called on a couple in North Waltham and asked them to call the police. Mr Mousley said he started banging his head on tarmac saying: “I have killed him” before police arrested him.

The court heard Smith appeared to show remorse at North Walls police station in Winchester, but did not say anything when interviewed by officers.

Neither the alleged murder weapon, nor the clothes Smith wore at the time, have ever been found, Mr Mousley said.

Smith denies one count of murder and one count of wounding with intent. The trial, expected to last four weeks, continues.