Nicholas Dill was stabbed to death amid a drug and sex session at his "dilapidated shack" home in Warwick, a jury has heard.

Opening the case against Andre Hypolite, 37 – who is accused of murdering Mr. Dill, 43, and seriously wounding his girlfriend Stacey Pike – Crown counsel Cindy Clarke described yesterday how the couple took drugs there together on Boxing Day 2004.

Ms Pike went out at one point and encountered Hypolite on her travels, inviting him back to the premises in Pearman's Hill.

The prosecutor claimed Hypolite took drugs with the couple and Ms Pike gave him oral sex. Mr. Dill also gave Hypolite oral sex. However, Hypolite then suggested he had anal sex with Mr. Dill, but Mr. Dill changed his mind just prior to the act.

"The defendant reached out, grabbed a knife, pulled Mr. Dill forward and stabbed him in his back," said Ms Clarke, describing how a fight ensued. "Stacey Pike tried to intervene, and she got chopped in her head."

The attention of a family at a nearby homestead was drawn to the incident, and the Police were called.

Ms Clarke said both men were naked during the oral sex and Ms Pike was wearing just a T-shirt. After the alleged stabbings, "the defendant pulls on his jeans and makes good his escape through a window of the apartment".

The first witness for the Crown was acting Detective Sergeant Jewel Hayward of the Police Forensic Support Unit.

He described how he videoed and photographed the scene at the premises, which he described as a "dilapidated shack" constructed of wood and brick, adjacent to a house.

Video and photographs he showed to the jury displayed areas inside the shack covered in reddish-brown stains which the detective said appeared to be blood.

He seized numerous items from the scene which had similar staining on them, including a machete from a room used as a kitchen/bathroom, and three knives and a hammer from the kitchen.

From the bedroom — where there were stains on the floor, bed and walls – he seized items including a flick knife, a pair of brown underwear, a Rough Rider condom wrapper, and a folded newspaper with stains on them.

Similar marks were found on a suede man's jacket, a woman's shirt and a white motorcycle helmet. What the detective described as a "small plastic twist" was found under the bedclothes, and what appeared to be a crack pipe under the clothing items.

He showed a path of reddish-brown staining forming a path outside the property, which he marked with crime scene markers. He did an initial test that indicated the stains were blood.

Acting Det. Sgt. Hayward also told the jury how he visited the junction of Lusher Hill East and Spice Hill Road in Warwick – one junction west of Pearman's Hill – on the morning of December 27, 2004. There, he collected "a large knife with a paper towel covering the handle." A lady living in an adjacent house pointed out where it had been found nearby.

This knife was shown to Stacey Pike, now aged 37, during a Police interview at St. Brendan's Hospital the following day.

On December 29, acting Det. Sgt Hayward visited what he described as "a secondary crime scene" at a home hear Raynor's Gas Station in Raynor's Drive, Southampton. He showed the jury photographs of a pair of stained jeans found between a headboard and a wall in a bedroom.

He returned to the Pearman's Hill scene with a Canadian blood pattern analyst later that day, where he photographed areas pointed out by the expert.

Ms Clarke represents the Crown along with Senior Crown Counsel Paula Tyndale and Crown Counsel Maria Sofianos. Hypolite, who denies murder and causing grievous bodily harm, is represented by John Perry QC and Llewellyn Peniston. The case continues.