The former partner of a Lowestoft father allegedly murdered by a former friend has broken down in tears as she described finding him lying in a pool of blood outside her home.

Giving evidence on the fourth day of the trial of Steven Butcher, who denies murdering Scott Tarrant, 25-year-old Rebecca Supple said she had been at her home in Underwood Close, Lowestoft, with Butcher when Mr Tarrant had turned up and repeatedly banged at her front door.

She had been angry with him because he had stood her up earlier in the evening and decided not to answer the door because she feared he might be violent.

Shortly afterwards she and Butcher heard his motorbike being pushed over outside and she claimed that Butcher said: 'If he's done anything to my ******* bike I'm going to kill him.'

She claimed Butcher had then taken a kitchen knife in a sheath from a drawer in her kitchen and went to the front door.

She took the knife off him and threw it to one side while Butcher went outside and picked up his bike.

He came back inside and picked up his motorbike helmet and left saying he was going to look for Mr Tarrant.

Shortly afterwards Miss Supple heard a commotion outside and saw the pair standing in the road as if they were about to have a fight.

She said she didn't know Butcher had picked up the knife when he returned to the house to get his helmet, saying: 'Otherwise I would have tried to intervene.'

Shortly afterwards everything went quiet and when she looked out of her children's bedroom window she could see Mr Tarrant lying in a pool of blood outside.

There was no sign of Butcher and when she rushed outside she said Mr Tarrant was conscious and struggling to breathe.

She rang 999 for an ambulance and when she went back outside she saw the sheath that had been on her kitchen knife.

Earlier in her evidence, Miss Supple said she and Mr Tarrant had been in a relationship but had split up in 2017 and at the time of his death in July last year she was living on her own in Lowestoft with her two children.

However, she said they were rebuilding their relationship and he regularly saw the two children.

She said she had known Butcher for three years and they got got on really well. She said: 'He was always a good friend to me.'

The 25-year-old said she had slept with Butcher when she and Mr Tarrant had split up and Mr Tarrant had 'really disliked' Butcher because of that.

On July 7 last year she and Mr Tarrant had arranged for him to go to her house after he'd watched an England World Cup game at a pub.

However, he had stood her up and she had texted him telling him not to bother coming round.

During that time she had texted Butcher and had invited him round because she was upset.

Mr Tarrant had texted her later in the evening but Miss Supple told him she hated him and didn't want to see him.

On Wednesday, the court heard from taxi drive Jamie Hart, who picked Butcher up from Hollingsworth Road shortly after Mr Tarrant's death.

Mr Hart said: 'He told me he had just opened someone up, so I asked if he had anything on him and he told me he had put it down a drain.

'I asked if it was self-defence and he said he'd stabbed him eight times, so I told him he was looking at murder.'

A post-mortem examination found Mr Tarrant had been stabbed nine times and had bled to death.

After his arrest Butcher denied stabbing Mr Tarrant and said he hadn't been in the area when it happened.

The case continues.