TRIAL LATEST: Friends tell court solicitor was seen with injuries

Friends of David Edwards, 51, gave evidence about their experiences of seeing his injuries and his explanations for them during Sharon Edwards’ trial at Manchester Crown Court.

Edwards, 42, of Parkers Wood Close, Chorley, is accused of fatally stabbing him in the heart just weeks after their wedding in Las Vegas in June.

He was found dead in his bed on August 23 - the day after they returned from a holiday in Majorca.

Friends told the jury they had warned him to leave her after seeing him sporting various injuries.

David’s ex-partner of eight years Debbie Livesey said her first encounter with her was spotting her storming up her garden path after kicking her door.

She said: “David liked a drink. He was a funny drunk. He was never violent when drunk.”

She said as time went on Sharon was constantly telephoning her, one minute wanting to be her friend and the next verbally abusing her. She also began to notice injuries.

Kathleen Hurst, a neighbour of Mr Edwards since 2008 when he moved to Parkers Wood Close, Chorley, and fellow neighbour Joanne Marsh who had known him for three years, said he had lost a lot of weight and looked gaunt and dishevelled.

Mrs Hurst recalled being on the verge of calling police after hearing screaming but three police vans turned up as she picked up the phone.

She said: “It was getting out of hand really and constant arguing and shouting. I got fed up of it.

“He was gradually going thinner and thinner over a good few weeks. And his demeanour altered. He didn’t make eye contact.”

Mrs Marsh, another neighbour, who heard several arguments, said she had witnessed Sharon Edwards pointing and swearing at David outside the house.

She told him it was not acceptable and he answered he did not know what to do. She replied: “You need to get rid of her”.

Mr Edwards had been an instructing solicitor for barrister Joanne Shepherd, whose statement was read to the court.

In it, she said: “He described her (Edwards) as a complete nightmare and she was bleeding him dry, spending all his money.”

The court was told that he would often turn up to work battered and bruised after coffee tables and ashtrays were launched at him - but Mr Edwards had refused to report Edwards to the police.

Edwards denies murdering him on August 23 last year at their home in Chorley, following a night of drinking in which she allegedly stabbed him for the first time - before he sustained a further, fatal, injury the next day.

(proceeding)