The defendant in a murder trial told police he was acting in self-defence when he stabbed a man to death in the garden of a bungalow in Sutton Heath.

Jay Cotterill said he stabbed Ipswich man Richard Hunt during a fight after Mr Hunt bit his nose so hard he thought he was going to take it off.

Cotterill, of Ipswich Avenue in Sutton Heath, is on trial at Ipswich Crown Court accused of murder.

He denies this charge, as well as an alternative charge of manslaughter.

The 43-year-old explained his girlfriend, Debbie Williams, had gone through his phone found out he had slept with another woman, Stephanie Harvey, and she was angry.

Cotterill had gone to his girlfriend’s house in Ipswich Avenue on October 8 last year to sort things out with her and was showering when he heard a loud banging on the door.

He said: “I looked out of the living room window and saw Steph and her baby dad, called Richard, outside waving a baseball bat.”

Cotterill said earlier Mr Hunt had texted him saying he was going to shoot him because earlier that day Ms Williams had texted Ms Harvey from his phone, calling her a "whore".

He said: “I had rung Richard and told him to keep his nose out and if he wanted to have a go we would sort it out.

“He hung up. He sent me a text saying he would shoot me. I knew he had access to weapons.

“Richard was shouting 'come out here, I’m going to kill you'. Steph was screaming at us and she wanted Debbie outside.

“I saw him waving a baseball bat around. I went back to the kitchen and grabbed a large kitchen knife.

“Richard and Steph came running towards me. I pushed her out of the away and she fell over.

“Richard was directly behind her and he hit me around the head with a baseball bat.”

Cotterill said he went down, then got up and then Mr Hunt bit his nose hard and held on while Ms Harvey was now beating him with the baseball bat.

He told the court: “He said through gritted teeth with my nose in his mouth ‘you like that, don’t you?’

"I thought I was going to lose my nose.

“I am stabbing him to get him off me. I don’t remember how many times I stabbed him.”

After this, he said Ms Harvey began biting him but after Mr Hunt fell, she began cuddling Mr Hunt, shouting “you’ve killed him”.

Mr Cotterill added: “I said you’ve killed him by turning up on my doorstep.”

He said he went inside and told his girlfriend what had happened, put the knife in the kitchen covered in blood and changed his jeans and told neighbours to call an ambulance.

“My actions were as a result of self-defence of both myself and my family. I had no intention to cause this outcome,” he said.

The trial will resume on Friday and Cotterill will give further evidence.