Mechanic ‘stabbed couple to death after row over the temperature of a shower’

A MECHANIC knifed a couple to death and stabbed two others in a frenzied attack after a row over the temperature of a shower, a court heard.

Simon Gorecki, 48, was in the bathroom when Foster Christian is said to have turned on the tap in the kitchen causing a sharp change in temperature.

When Simon shouted out, Christian, 54, responded: "F*** off you mug", a jury heard.

Shortly afterwards he is alleged to have stabbed Simon five times including four times in the back.

He also killed Natasha Sadler, 40, and wounded her son Connaugh Harris, 20, and a 16-year-old boy, it is alleged.

Natasha received several wounds, one that had entered above her left eyebrow and "followed down" into her lower jaw.

Simon, a former fishmonger, died from a collapsed right lung and Natasha from a wound to her heart sustained during the attack at around 7pm on March 29.

Prosecutor Philip Bennetts QC told a court that Connaugh and the 16-year-old visited the home in Canterbury, Kent, after hearing sounds of abuse.

Mr Bennetts said: "Connaugh tried to calm the situation. It appeared for a moment there was calm.

"Foster Christian then shouted further abuse. Natasha went to his room."

Simon, Connaugh and the teenager followed her into the room where there was pushing and shoving between Christian and Natasha, jurors heard.

When Connaugh tried to intervene he was struck by Christian prompting the teenager to punch him back - and he retaliated with a knife covered by a plastic bag, it is claimed.

Mr Bennetts said: "Using the knife he fatally wounded Simon and Natasha and seriously injured the teenager and Connaugh."

The court heard Christian called police and said the knife was his but then changed his account to "their knife", claiming he had grabbed it from them and they had taken it back.

Police arrived at the house at around 7.40pm to find the teenager lying at the top of the driveway, Natasha on the kitchen threshold and Simon on the kitchen floor.

Connaugh had been giving the teenager first aid on the driveway and after trying to help his mother and carrying out CPR on Simon.

The teenager had a wound to his right forearm, a superficial injury to his right thigh, a cut to his abdomen, a 3cm whole in his large bowel and a large bleed to the iliac vein, which returns blood from the leg to the heart.

He was put in intensive care after surgery at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

A police officer saw Christian, who was bleeding from a cut above his right eye and speaking on his phone, and shouted at him to go back upstairs, the court heard.

The alleged murderer sat on the stairs and told another officer he did not have a knife.

Jurors heard he told cops: "They attacked me with a knife. I got it off them and fought back. They were hitting me and attacking me. They took the knife back."

Pools of Natasha's blood had stained the upstairs floor around the threshold of Christian's bedroom, believed to be from the wound on her left eyebrow which poured out as she stood at the top of the stairs.

Mr Bennetts said: "One explanation for the blood distribution around the top of the stairs is that she stood or knelt on one of the upper steps facing up the stairs while blood pumped from the wound on her left eyebrow."

No alcohol had been found in Christian's blood but both Simon and Natasha had been drinking.

Naomi Toro, 36, had arrived at the house and was seen by a police officer leaving with the knife used to inflict the injuries.

When arrested on March 30 she took officers to where she had thrown the weapon into the River Stour from a bridge.

Christian denies two charges of murder and two of wounding with intent.

The court heard he does not dispute he inflicted the wounds on all four but claims he was acting in self-defence.

The trial continues.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368