Father-of-two Malcolm Walsh was stabbed through the heart after simmering bad feeling about a drugs debt exploded into violence, a court heard.

Mr Walsh, 32, of Shannon Close, Leigh, collapsed in a pool of blood just yards from where his young children were standing, following a street brawl with rival Terry Watkins, 54.

A Chelmsford Crown Court jury heard how months of harassment, vulgar abuse and threats between the two spiralled into violence.

The last straw was phoned threats to Watkins' wife Lydia stating that their home was to be firebombed and that Watkins was "a dead man."

Watkins saw red when Mr Walsh arrived in Locksley Close, Southend, to drop his children off at his estranged wife Bernadette's home. As yet more abuse was hurled, Watkins opened the front door as Mr Walsh started to hammer on it.

Grey-haired Watkins said: "He came over in a right aggressive manner. I wasn't going to be intimidated by him."

But he denied the knife which killed Mr Walsh was his. Watkins said: "I saw a glint of a knife. He came round here tooled up. I am very sorry he is dead but it isn't down to me."

Watkins denies murdering Mr Walsh.

The trial continues.

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