A dad stabbed the 15-year-old son of his estranged partner to death then fled and tried to cross the English Channel to France on a dinghy, a murder trial jury was told.
Beforehand, he was seen 'walking the streets' around the house for more than three hours wearing a baseball cap, a face mask and latex gloves, the court heard. The court heard details of what Ms Bastek went on to tell police. The jury heard she was on a Facebook Messenger call to a friend in the living room when she noticed a 'moving shadow' on floor.
Mr Leach said: "Jakub came downstairs where he found Suleman Altaf. Katarzyna Bastek told the police that Jakub Szymanski went to fight Suleman Altaf. She realised that she was bleeding from her stomach. She called out to her friend, who was still on an open Facebook Messenger call on her telephone 'please phone to the police because he's gonna kill me'.
The friend Ms Bastek was talking to on Facebook called police and she, herself, managed to call her adult son, who alerted a friend and returned. The friend's parents subsequently found Jakub and attempted CPR, jurors were told. Ms Bastek was taken to hospital with a 'significant number of injuries' after paramedics attended and worked on her son.
"They tried to persuade him to leave the dinghy and come onto their boat but, for more than an hour, he refused. He told the RNLI crew that he intended to sail to France before travelling on to Portugal.