A FOOTBALL fan left his friend for dead and lit a cigarette after slashing his throat with a three-foot machete while high on drugs, a court heard.

Guy Hamilton, 35, left a trail of blood splattered across the pavements as stumbled to a neighbour’s for help in the minutes following an altercation with Damien Hill, 44, at his flat in Barrow on April 30 last year.

Preston Crown Court heard that Hill and Mr Hamilton had consumed a large quantity of drink and had taken the drug ketamine before and after they watched Barrow AFC take on Wrexham at Holker Street Stadium.

Hill had sliced his drinking pal’s jugular vein, causing damage to his voice box and spine. By the time emergency services arrived, it was too late.

Simon Medland QC, setting out the case for the prosecution on the first day of the trial, said: “Having escaped from his flat, Mr Hamilton went to his neighbour’s to try and get some help, losing blood all of the time.

“He effectively bled to death.”

Hill admits causing the injury but claims he has little recollection of the event and denies murder.

He and Mr Hamilton had gone to the Tally Ho pub after the football match, then visited a shop before they returned to Mr Hamilton’s home.

They had been due to go to a charity dance music night in Barrow town centre. The victim dialled a taxi at 9.44pm, arranging a 10.05pm pick-up.

But by 9.52pm, he was dialling 999 to get treatment for the wound which proved to be fatal.

The prosecution told the court that Hill had returned from the victim’s flat in Meetings View to his house in nearby Sowerby Avenue.

Mr Medland said: “During this trial you will hear about the defendant’s actions after this event, that he lighted a cigarette and returned to his mother’s home.

“He told different members of his mum’s family at differing points things like ‘I cut his throat, I don’t know why I’ve done that’ and ‘I’m going to turn myself in’.”

Hill took himself back to the scene of the crime at 1am the next morning, where he was arrested. When police read the charge, he asked ‘what, it’s not attempted murder... is he dead?’.

In the aftermath of his death Mr Hamilton was described as ‘Ormsgill’s finest’ by friends and £1,000 was raised by members of the community towards his funeral.

Siobhan Grey, for the defence, said that the victim kept martial arts weapons such as nunchucks in his home and had purchased the machete in the week prior to his death.

When it arrived, his friend had spent an hour sharpening it with a chef’s knife.

She said: “Damien Hill accepts that he caused that injury, with the machete that belonged to Guy Hamilton.

"What is not agreed is that when Damien Hill committed that unlawful act his intention was to cause serious injury.

“Up until that incident these two friends had spent the day together with no hint of hostility or animosity. They were about to go out for some evening’s entertainment.”

The trial continues.

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