A man who is accused of killing a doorman in a Yeovil bedsit made a Snapchat video minutes later in which he said ‘I think I’ve murdered someone’, a court heard.
Matthew Sheridan, of South Petherton, Somerset, recorded the video clip in the 35 minutes between the alleged stabbing of Louis Bednall and his arrest in a flat above.
Sheridan and tenant Derrick Michael posed shirtless and one of them says ‘we almost got nicked up by the feds big time’.
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Sheridan goes on to say ‘I’ve just been done for murder. I have just murdered someone’.
He showed off a cut on his hand and said ‘I’m not going to be able to cage fight’.
The jury at Exeter Crown Court has been shown a compilation of videos from the block of flats at Hendford Hill, Yeovil, where dad-of-five Mr Bednall suffered a fatal stab wound in the early hours of December 12 last year.
Sheridan, aged 29, of South Petherton, Somerset, denies murder.
Former hospital security officer Mr Bednall was visiting friends in flat 4 on the first floor while Sheridan was staying with his friend Mr Michael in flat 7 on the second floor.
A jury at Exeter Crown Court has been told there had been a dispute between Mr Bednall and Sheridan a few minutes before Sheridan went into flat 4.
Mr Bednall thought Sheridan had stolen a bottle of vodka from the room and demanded that he give it back just before the violence started.
The prosecution allege Sheridan killed him in a ‘frantic and intense attack’ in which he stabbed him repeatedly in the neck, shoulder and head.
Mr Bednall’s girlfriend Tanaya Robins said they were on a pre-Christmas visit to friends in Yeovil but she ended up trying to save his life.
She wrapped clothes over the wounds but said she could feel blood pouring through her fingers.
She said ‘I literally had to watch him die. It was horrendous.’
Miss Robins gave a video recorded interview to police a few hours after the stabbing in which described the scene while calling Sheridan by his nickname of Manic and Mr Michael as Diggy.
She said the dispute started because she, Mr Bednall, the tenant they were staying with Simon Bishop and Mr Bishop’s girlfriend went out to buy pot noodles just before midnight.
They returned to find a bottle of vodka missing from the room and saw Sheridan with an identical bottle in his hand.
Mr Bednall confronted him when he came back into Room 4 and demanded he return the stolen bottle, the court heard.
She said: ”Manic came back. Something was said and he went bosh and I saw a fist going towards Louis’s neck. I thought it was a fist fight at first and we all jumped in to pull them apart.
“Then I saw a handle in Manic’s hand. I thought it was a screwdriver but that would not have caused two and a half inch cuts, so I think it was a knife.
“It was horrendous. I don’t remember Manic leaving. It happened so fast. I shouted out that he had killed him. I looked at Louis and just knew he wasn’t going to survive – and all because of a bottle of vodka.
“I used my jumper and hoodie to try to apply pressure to the wounds but he was still bleeding hard and could feel the blood pouring between my fingers. I watched him go white.
“I was doing everything I could but he had a punctured jugular. I literally had to watch him die.”
Miss Robins said she thought that both Manic and Diggy were under the influence of alcohol and cocaine on the night of the killing.
Avon and Somerset CCTV expert Jonathan Matthews showed the jury a compilation of clips which showed Sheridan going into room 4 for only a few seconds at 12.25 am before he and Mr Michael left the house.
They returned shortly afterwards and went straight to room 7 where they remained until police broke down the door at 1 am.
Mr Matthews said the two Snapchat videos were recorded between 12.34 and 12.47 am and were found on Mr Michael’s phone.
One of them is shirtless in one or other of the clips and the police could be heard trying to get into the room in the second one.
The trial continues.
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