A man was stabbed to death amid a drug and sex session on Boxing Day 2004, a jury heard this morning.

Opening the case against Andre Hypolite, 37 – who stands accused of murdering Nicholas Dill, 43, and seriously wounding his girlfriend Stacey Pike – Crown Counsel Cindy Clarke said the incident took place at Mr. Dill’s apartment in Pearman’s Hill, Warwick.

Mr. Dill and Ms Pike were at home there taking drugs on the date in question, claimed the prosecutor. Ms Pike went out, encountered Hypolite on her travels, and invited him back to the premises.

Hypolite took drugs with the couple and Ms Pike gave him oral sex, the court heard. Mr. Dill also gave Hypolite oral sex.

Ms Clarke went on to tell the jury that 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,” she claimed, explaining that 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 tee-shirt. After the alleged stabbings, “the defendant pulls on his jeans and makes good his escape through a window of the apartment.”

The prosecutor warned that “a large portion of this case is going to shed some light on the drug culture”. However, she asked the nine men and three women of the jury not to make assumptions about it because of that, or to hold sympathy for the victims, their families or the defendant.

Instead, she urged them to decide the case purely on the evidence that will be put before them.

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. See tomorrow's edition of The Royal Gazette for more.