THE man accused of murdering Kai Archer in Bournemouth pulled out a knife during a fight between the two and stabbed him three times, a court has heard.

Jamie Higgs denies murdering Mr Archer in St Swithun’s Road, Bournemouth, late on November 16, 2019.

Kerry Maylin, prosecuting, told Winchester Crown Court yesterday that 20-year-old Mr Archer and the defendant got into an altercation outside Bournemouth Pizza Co.

She told jurors Higgs, who was aged 18 at the time of the incident, pulled a knife from his pocket and witnesses had described him “jabbing” at Mr Archer.

In opening the prosecution’s case on the first day of the trial, Miss Maylin said Mr Archer, of St Swithun’s Road, sustained three stab wounds to the left side of his chest and abdomen.

The court heard that he walked back a short distance from the altercation before collapsing onto a nearby car and then the floor.

Miss Maylin told jurors Mr Archer had been on the phone before the fight, with the call ending at approximately 10:02:16pm.

She told the court by 10.03pm, an ambulance had been called via 999. Mr Archer was taken to Poole Hospital but all resuscitation attempts ceased at 11.07pm.

Miss Maylin said before the altercation, Higgs had hit Mr Archer on the head with a WKD bottle while they were walking together to the area near the pizza establishment.

The court was told by prosecutors that a WKD bottle was found by police at the junction of Knyveton Road and St Swithun’s Road.

Miss Maylin said Higgs was wearing a distinctive red jacket during the incident and claimed that a jacket of this description was recovered later that evening at the junction of Knyveton Road and Amerley Road.

Forensics taken from blood on this jacket returned a strong DNA match for Mr Archer, Miss Maylin said.

The court heard that the stab wounds Mr Archer suffered had caused damage to his heart, liver and lung.

Miss Maylin said a pathologist recorded the maximum track or depth of the wounds to be 7cm from the skin down into the body.

Concluding her opening of the prosecution’s case, Miss Maylin told the jury: “In this particular case, Jamie Higgs will raise before you the defence of self-defence. The prosecution have to prove that Jamie Higgs was not acting in self-defence.”

The trial is expected to last two weeks, but Judge Jennifer Eady DBE told the jury of five men and seven women that the case could go into a third week.

Higgs, 19 and of Windsor Road, Boscombe, denies murder. The trial continues.