The former partner of an Ipswich man who died after being stabbed seven times with a kitchen knife during a “massive fight” with her ex-boyfriend tried to give him CPR as he lay injured on the ground, a court has heard.

In a recorded interview with police the day after the killing, Stephanie Harvey repeatedly broke down in tears as she described seeing 37-year-old Richard Hunt fall to the ground after being stabbed by Jay Cotterill.

“There was so much blood,” she said.

In the interview which was played to a jury at Ipswich Crown Court on Monday Ms Harvey claimed she had been hit in the face by Cotterill and there had then been a fight between Mr Hunt and Cotterill during which she heard Mr Hunt say: “He’s got a knife” before falling to the ground.

She had tried to give him CPR and an air ambulance crew was also deployed to the scene of the stabbing in Ipswich Avenue, Sutton Heath, near Woodbridge, last October.

Cotterill, 43, of Ipswich Avenue, Sutton Heath, has denied murdering Mr Hunt and an alternative charge of manslaughter.

He has also denied assaulting Ms Harvey causing her actual bodily harm.

Ms Harvey told police that during the hours before she and Mr Hunt went to Ipswich Avenue on October 8 last year there had been an exchange of threatening texts and phone calls between Mr Hunt and Cotterill after Cotterill’s partner Debbie Williams found text messages on Cotterill’s phone between her and Cotterill , who she’d split up with shortly before.

Ipswich Star: Richard Hunt died after the stabbing last OctoberRichard Hunt died after the stabbing last October (Image: Charlotte Bond, Newsquest)

She had decided to deliver a card wishing Ms Williams luck in her relationship with Cotterill and was driven to Sutton Heath by Mr Hunt, who she’d been in a 13-year relationship before they split up seven years ago.

She said that after she left the card at the front door Mr Hunt had used a baseball bat that had been in the back of the car to bang on windows of the property, and she also saw him throw a scooter on to a roof.

Ms Harvey said Cotterill had come out in his boxer shorts and there had been a fight between the two men during which Mr Hunt was stabbed.

Cross-examined by defence counsel, Jeremy Benson KC, Ms Harvey said she was aware that Mr Hunt had sent Cotterill a text threatening to kill to him but didn’t know he had specifically threatened to shoot him.

She said she had told Mr Hunt to stay in the car while she delivered the card because even though she thought Cotterill and Ms Williams weren’t at home, she didn’t want him to “get angry and cause more trouble”.

After his arrest, Cotterill told police that he'd stabbed Mr Hunt in self-defence after he was hit over the head with the baseball bat and had his nose bitten.

But Andrew Jackson, prosecuting, said: 'The prosecution case is that this is murder and not a killing done in self-defence. It was done in sheer anger and as an act of revenge.”

The court has heard that Mr Hunt suffered seven stab wounds, mainly to his chest and neck, including two that were individually fatal.

One wound penetrated 13cm into his chest and damaged part of his lung and the main pumping chamber of his heart.

The handle of the knife caused bruising to Mr Hunt's chest when it was literally "stabbed to the hilt" into his body, said Mr Jackson.

The trial continues.