‘I just went blank’: Accused murderer says he ‘lost it’ before killing girlfriend on toilet, trial says

A man accused of murder has told a court he stabbed his girlfriend in the bathroom after “losing it” but says he has no recollection of the attack because he went “blank”.

David Liptrot, 56, has pleaded not guilty to murdering his partner Caroline Gore, 43, but accepts he unlawfully killed her by stabbing her. He is on trial at Manchester Crown Court.

Mrs Gore died after being stabbed four times in her flat in Douglas House, Wigan. Prosecutors allege she was sitting on the toilet when she was stabbed by Mr Liptrot, who “stalked” her after a drunken row. She was left with injuries to her neck, chest and abdomen, jurors said.

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Opening the case last week, prosecutor Alaric Bassano said the couple were in a “toxic relationship”, with “excessive drinking on both sides” and “physical violence”. While Mr Liptrot said it was Ms Gore who was violent with him, the prosecution argued the evidence suggested it was “the other way round”.

Jurors were told that Mr Liptrot was tried twice for assaulting Ms Gore in 2022 and received two short prison terms. He was made the subject of a restraining order banning him from contacting her for two years, the court heard.

In March 2023, he breached the order and was prosecuted for stalking Ms Gore and sending her abusive messages, the court heard. He was released in June 2023 and breached the order again after Mrs Gore called the police when he turned up at her flat showing them a bite, jurors were told.

Mr Liptrot was released from prison after 10 weeks on October 3, 2023, and later that month, on October 29, he joined Ms Gore at the Wheatsheaf pub in Atherton for drinks. The jury was told the couple were seen entering at 3.50pm but Mrs Gore quickly became upset and began to cry.

“I don’t remember what happened, I just went blank”

Giving evidence yesterday (July 8), Mr Liptrot, of Chorley, Lancashire, was asked by Nigel Power KC why Mrs Gore started crying.

He said: “That’s how she was, she could walk into a pub and start crying. That was Caroline.”

The jury heard that Caroline told the women in the toilets at the pub that she had just lost a baby. Mr Liptrot said Caroline had never told him she was pregnant or had lost a baby and made the comments “just for attention”.

At 5.50pm, Mr Liptrot began “living” in the cabin door while Ms Gore was inside, the jury heard.

Asked why he started banging on the door, Mr Liptrot said he was “frustrated” that Ms Gore kept going to the toilet and said it was “obvious” she was going there to fetch another man.

The court heard Mr Liptrot then left the pub and Mrs Gore went out while he was gone and hailed a taxi. Mr Liptrot said he called Ms Gore to see where she was just before returning to the pub but she did not answer and then started looking for her.

He left the pub at 5.40pm and at 7.05pm CCTV footage captured him trying to gain access to Mrs Gore’s flat, the court heard. Mr Liptrot entered the common area of ​​Ms Gore’s building, saw she was not there and then looked for her in another pub.

Mr Liptrot then entered Ms Gore’s flat with his key at 8.10pm. He told the jury he went to bed and fell asleep. Three hours later, at 11.05pm, Mrs Gore returned to her flat.

Mr Liptrot said Ms Gore entered the flat and could hear her ‘talking to herself’ and that when she saw him she started ‘snarling and lashing out’ at him and asked him: ‘Where have you been? ‘

He said she started “screaming and screaming” and her face turned “bright red” and she “grabbed” him and “scraped” his neck.

Mr Liptrot said he “pushed” her back and her head hit the door. “She used to come to me. I’m sick of him coming at me,” he told the jury.

He added that Ms Gore then ran into the living room before putting on jeans and a vest and staying behind the bedroom door. He said he then heard her go into the bathroom where Ms Gore was “screaming” and at one point he heard her say: “F****** is killing you”.

He said he went into the bathroom to “calm her down” and the door was open and she was facing him.

Mr Liptrot said: “I was telling him to stop. She screamed and screamed. He had a knife then. She said she was going to kill me,” he added.

Mr Liptrot said Ms Gore was holding the knife in her right hand.

Asked if he took her threat seriously, he said: “Yes. I kept telling him to stop.”

He told the court he then grabbed her wrists and pulled her towards him, but she “slipped” and fell on her back and the knife fell next to him. Mr Liptrot said that when the knife fell next to him, he “lost it” and picked it up.

“I don’t remember what happened, I just went blank. I was afraid it would come on me. I was afraid I would be stabbed,” he said.

The defendant dropped the knife and put the clothes in the basket

The court heard Ms Gore had four stab wounds, three to her upper body and one to her neck. Asked if he had caused them, Mr Liptrot said: “Obviously I must have caused them.”

He later said he only remembered stabbing her once in the stomach, adding: “It happened so quickly.”

Asked if Ms Gore was in the toilet when he stabbed her, as she was found undressed, Mr Liptrot said: “No she wasn’t, she stood up.”

Mr Liptrot was then asked if he believed Ms Gore was seriously injured when she left the flat. He replied: “I didn’t really know what to think, I knew I stabbed her.”

Asked why he didn’t call an ambulance, he said: “When you’re in a situation like that, I went into shock. Fuck me. I was just frustrated.” He later added that he was “scared” of what he had done.

“When I lost him, you don’t know what you’re thinking. One minute you’re there, one minute you’re in a different world,” he added.

The court then heard that Mr Liptrot left the flat 17 minutes after Ms Gore arrived home and that both Ms Gore’s and Mr Liptrot’s phones were picked up by a telephone pole near a bridge just before midnight. No phones were recovered by police, the court heard.

Mr Liptrot said he must have picked up Ms Gore’s phone before leaving, but could not say why and did not know what she did with the phone. Asked later if Ms Gore’s phone had gone into the channel, he said: “It very well could have.”

The court heard Mr Liptrot was later seen on CCTV putting a bag of clothes in a bin and throwing a knife into a set of bushes near a bus stop.

Asked why he threw the knife into the bushes, Mr Liptrot said: “I just did it. I didn’t want to take it with me. As soon as I was arrested, I told the police where he was.”

The court then heard that the day after the stabbing on Monday, October 30, Mr Liptrot went to a pub and allegedly told another man he had stabbed Ms Gore. Asked if he told the man he had stabbed Ms Gore, Mr Liptrot said: “I don’t know, I don’t think I did.”

The jury then heard that the pub landlady claimed Mr Liptrot told her he had “got out of trouble”. Asked if it was true, Mr Liptrot said: “I don’t say such words.”

The trial, which is expected to last two to three weeks, continues.