A MAN who allegedly stabbed a pub-goer in the stomach following a row sent a text message to his daughter immediately afterwards saying ‘I’ve just killed someone’, a Royal Court trial has heard.
Paul Anthony Hadikin’s messages were read to jurors yesterday on the first day of his trial for attempted murder and grave and criminal assault.
Mr Hadikin (57) denies both charges.
The jury heard that in separate messages, Mr Hadikin had written ‘It’s all over. I’ve just killed someone’ before following that message by saying ‘Help me. He’s dead.’
However, the man survived – but spent nearly two months in hospital, the court heard.
Mr Hadikin left the Temple Bar on Stopford Road on 3 December following an altercation and returned armed with a knife, the court heard.
He is then accused of stabbing the other man in what Crown Advocate Matthew Maletroit, prosecuting, described as ‘a calculated and brutal act of violence’ in which ‘death was nearly the outcome’.
Footage from a police officer’s body-worn camera in which the alleged victim is seen with a wound in his abdomen and receiving first aid was also played in court.
The alleged victim suffered a stab wound six or seven inches deep, which almost cut his colon in half and left him with one kidney, the court was told.
He was placed in an induced coma for three weeks and spent another month in hospital.
Advocate Maletroit alleged that Mr Hadikin had been motivated by revenge. He said the two men had got into an argument in the pub which ‘escalated into a physical altercation’.
Mr Hadikin, he said, had been knocked to the ground.
He continued: ‘The defendant was hurt, not just physically. His ego was hurt too.
‘He was disrespected and embarrassed. He wasn’t going to let that go.’
The Advocate said Mr Hadikin left the pub and returned shortly afterwards with a large knife ‘that enabled him to do the maximum damage’.
He said: ‘The victim suffered a wound which caused severe, life-threatening injuries.
‘The defendant left him for dead, or so he believed. It is luck rather than judgment that he survived.’
Crown Advocate Maletroit added: ‘As firearms officers prepared to storm the defendant’s flat, he handed himself in to the police. When he was asked the whereabouts of the knife, he said it was in Springfield Stadium.’
The weapon was not found but the Crown Advocate said that the ‘evidence leaves no room for doubt that the knife was used by the defendant and then disposed of’.
The alleged victim also spoke on the first day of the trial and admitted there had been an argument in the pub before he was stabbed.
He said: ‘Mr Hadikin was shouting in my face. I could feel his breath in my face. I pushed him away from me because I felt threatened. He said “I’ll be back”.’
The man was playing pool when he said Mr Hadikin returned and attacked him.
He said his memory of the incident was unclear but recalled: ‘I knew I had been stabbed. I was holding my stomach and then I hit the floor.’
Of his injuries, he added: ‘I had a kidney taken out. I’ll need operations for the next two years.’
Advocate David Steenson, defending, suggested the victim had head-butted Mr Hadikin rather than pushing him during the initial argument in the pub.
The alleged victim said: ‘I thought he was going to assault me.’
Advocate Steenson said: ‘You head-butted him so hard that you split his lip and broke his teeth.’
He replied: ‘I don’t remember.’
The trial is expected to last four more days.
