A good Samaritan died from a heart attack as he went to the aid of a stabbing victim, a murder trial heard.

Retired Bernard Lambert raised the alarm and tried to help Wasim Dad as he lay dying in his flat.

But Mr Lambert then suffered a heart attack and died at the scene minutes later.

Leeds Crown Court heard that 37-year-old Mr Dad died after being repeatedly stabbed in the chest and back with his own kitchen knife at his flat in Woodview Terrace, Manning-ham. His neighbour Dominique Chainey denies murder.

Prosecutor Graham Hyland QC told the jury of nine women and three men that the attack was so ferocious the knife broke in two.

Mr Hyland said Chainey, 32, inflicted three wounds to Mr Dad's chest and two to his back, of which four were deep, during the killing in May 2001.

He told the court Mr Dad and Chainey lived in separate flats in the same house and from April 2001 they frequently argued about noise.

On Saturday, May 12, the pair rowed while Mr Dad was in the garden and Chainey was at the window of his first floor flat.

During the argument they exchanged insults and Mr Dad had thrown a metal bar or a baseball bat at his neighbour, who hurled a gas cylinder back at him from the window. Both missiles did not hit their targets.

They were both arrested but released the next morning.

Just after 2pm on the Sunday afternoon, Mr Dad's girlfriend Samantha Harpin, with whom he lived, went out to make a phone call and in the few minutes she was away Mr Dad, a soft drinks deliverer, was attacked and killed.

When she returned she found her boyfriend, who was wearing only boxer shorts as he prepared to have a bath, still alive but fatally wounded.

Mr Hyland said: "She tried to summon help on her mobile phone, running outside as she did. Mr Lambert was sitting on the step outside and she gave him the phone to continue with the call. Others came into the flat to help, including Mr Lambert. Tragically he had a heart attack, collapsed at the scene and died."

He said Mr Dad died from massive haemorrhaging due to the penetrating stab wounds, before the arrival of the emergency services.

Mr Hyland said that when the case was first listed for trial in November 2001 Chainey was so mentally ill he was unfit to stand trial. But he was now fit to be tried although he still suffered from a mental illness.

The prosecutor added that Chainey's defence was likely to be that he was acting in reasonable and lawful self-defence and diminished responsibility, but that was not accepted by the crown.

Miss Harpin, who was 17 at the time, told how she passed Chainey in the street as she returned from making her phone call. She said: "I was scared. He just looked at me and smiled and made me feel as if something had happened. I ran back."

She said she found Mr Dad on the settee and pressed a towel to his chest. She noticed a blood-stained knife on the floor.

The trial continues.