A DRUG dealer was in a 'rage' when he stabbed a user and went to 'finish him off' with a knife thrust to the heart, a court was told.

Ethan Bell denies attempted murder, section 18 wounding and possession of a blade after stabbing drug user Keil Mansfield at a flat in George Street, Worcester.

Mr Mansfield, who collapsed outside, was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

Medics opened his chest and he had to have a laparotomy to explore his injuries which included a damaged artery, a collapsed lung and damage to the small bowel, placing him at risk of peritonitis.

Cross-examination by prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu resumed at Worcester Crown Court yesterday.

Mr Sandhu said the 19-year-old had been in Worcester for the entirety of June 11, the day of the stabbing, disputing Bell's claim that he had been dropped in the city by a man who had ordered him to sell drugs.

Convicted drug dealer Bell of Himley Street, Dudley, has admitted he was dealing crack cocaine from the flat but denies he was in Worcester to 'make money' for himself or that he had used his own knife to stab Mr Mansfield, claiming instead it was Mr Mansfield who produced the knife.

Mr Sandhu said Bell had stabbed Mr Mansfield in the chest to 'finish him off' and had not believed he would be caught because he was known to drug users as 'Spoons' and had 'covered his tracks', giving a false name to the taxi driver who took him back to Dudley.

He disputed that Bell was not 'scared' and argued he was keeping his head low, trying to escape police in Dudley on June 15, describing the stabbing as 'anything but self-defence'.

He said Bell had been 'clever' in not using his own phone to call the taxi (his girlfriend made the call) and of lying when he said he needed to go to sleep in the taxi so he would not be seen by the police.

"You're making it up as you go along aren't you?" said Mr Sandhu. "No" said Bell.

Mr Sandhu also said Bell cut his police interview short because the 'stakes were high' rather than because of legal advice.

Bell said: "He's the aggressor. I'm not lying about the knife. I didn't do nothing wrong. All I did was protect myself."

But Mr Sandhu said: "You were the aggressor. "You were in such a rage by this point you stabbed him again. In your anger you wanted to do him harm, didn't you? To make sure he was properly finished off, you aimed for his chest didn't you?"

"No said Bell. "I just wanted to get out of the situation."

"When you put the knife into him a third time you did it intending that he would die, didn't you?"

"No" said Bell.

Forensic medical examiner Dr Jason Payne-James said Mr Mansfield had suffered three stab wounds, two near his belly button, one of which penetrated the small bowel, and another which penetrated his chest between his fourth and fifth ribs, causing his lung to collapse and damaging one of the mammary arteries and his chest cavity to fill with around a pint and a half of blood.

Each stab wound involved the blade penetrating the body at least between 2cm and 3cm. Shallow incised wounds on Bell's hands could be defence wounds Mr Payne-James said.

However, he also conceded they could have been caused if Bell's hand had slipped while holding the knife.

Mariana De Silva, former partner of Bell, said he had called her after the stabbing and said he was scared and needed her help.

She had called him a taxi and met with him.

"He was shaking. He didn't look like himself at all" she said.

Miss De Silva also said the couple had discussed him handing himself in.

The trial continues.