A MAN who was stabbed to death looked like “a lion tamer fighting a lion” in the moments before his death, a court heard.

A jury has been told Courtney Valentine-Brown attempted to fend off attackers with a chair while covered in blood moments before being fatally stabbed in his femoral artery.

The 36-year-old later died after the attack at a flat in Roots Hall Drive, Southend in February last year. Four people deny his murder.

One of those, Kelly King, had been letting Mr Valentine-Brown stay in her flat, but in the run up to his death had been asking him to leave.

The jury heard King, along with her partner Ian Slater, plus Alex Stephens and Stuart Pearson, went to the flat on the night of February 20 to force Mr Valentine-Brown and his flatmate Solmaz Sevket to leave.

In the witness box at Basildon Crown Court on Friday, King said she had gone into a bedroom and told Solmaz to leave. While there, she heard a commotion coming from the other room, where Mr Valentine-Brown had been.

Moments later, she said Slater burst into the bedroom and hit Solmaz, saying he was “enraged”.

She said: “I have never, ever seen Ian behave like this before.”

Addressing her, Simon Spence, prosecuting, said: “So Solmaz leaves, you leave, and you do not see Mr Pearson on the landing or in the room, but you peek into the front room.

“You saw Courtney Valentine-Brown with blood flowing from his head, armed with a chair.

“You previously said it was like a lion tamer keeping a lion at bay.”

King, visibly emotional, replied: “Yes, he was defending himself. He was scared.”

The court also heard that Alex Stephens, upon getting into a car afterwards, said that he “thought he killed him” in relation to Mr Valentine-Brown. King, 30, of of Howards Close, Westcliff, Pearson, 43, of Satanita Road, Westcliff, Slater, 50, of Wayletts, Leigh, and Stephens, 36, of Hamlet Court Road in Westcliff, deny murder. The trial continues.