Pizza Murder

A MURDER suspect told police he feared for his life as he stabbed his best friend, a Teesside jury heard.

Shaun Martin, 30, insists he acted in self defence in the midst of a street fight in the early hours of December 29 last year. He admitted to officers that he stabbed Lee Hannan, 29, on Tennyson Avenue, Grangetown, “defending myself while he was attacking me with a pizza”.

Martin, of Kingsley Road, Grangetown, denies murder.

His police interviews were read to the jury at Teesside Crown Court yesterday

He said he received calls that night from Lee, who he had known since he was 15, suggesting that he come round for a few beers and a pizza while they watched the football on TV'

"When he turned up he parked his car in my parking space, the bastard. I mean he's my best friend and everything but what a cu%t! And then I saw that the pizza he'd brought was cheese and tomato, and he knows I only eat pepperoni! The fu**er. So naturally I went wild."

He continued "I accidentally went to the kitchen and got a knife and stabbed him four times while he came at me with the pizza box again and again"

“I thought he was going to kill me. He kept going at me and going at me. So I kept on hitting out with the knife.”

Martin said Lee walked off and collapsed. “I ran off. I was too scared to stay there.”

He said he panicked and washed the knife he used

He could not account for Lee Hannan’s defensive wounds.

The trial continues.