A 41-year-old father was stabbed to death after he tried to stop a row over a game of pool, a Court heard.

Bradford Magistrates' Court was told how Gary Elwood had been trying to calm an argument over a pool table at the Tempest pub in Holme Wood, Bradford, between the licensee's son and 28-year-old Jason Lyons.

Prosecutor Stephen Uttley said: "The deceased was seen to split the two men up.

"A person not looking for a confrontation, trying to resolve matters with the public house and trying to calm the situation down."

Mr Uttley said Lyons, of Englefield Crescent, Holme Wood, Bradford, was asked to leave the pub on Monday night and he went home in a drunken state.

Lyons, who lives with his partner and two children, went out again with the family dog and was seen pacing up and down outside the pub, said Mr Uttley. He alleged that after a further verbal confrontation in the street Mr Elwood was seen to throw a punch at the defendant. Lyons is then alleged to have attacked Mr Elwood with a weapon, thought to be a knife, stabbing him in the chest.

Lyons then returned home where he told his partner he had been involved in a fight with three men.

Mr Uttley said Lyons gave a statement to police claiming he remembered being involved in some form of argument in the pub, but could remember nothing after he returned home to collect his dog.

Lyons made his first appearance before Stipendiary Magistrate Jeffrey Brailsford yesterday, charged with the murder of Mr Elwood.

Father-of-two Mr Elwood, of Kelvin House, Holme Wood, was pronounced dead on arrival at Bradford Royal Infirmary, shortly after midnight on November 7.

Lyons' solicitor Philippa Murray successfully asked for reporting restrictions to be lifted so she could appeal for any witnesses who had not come forward to contact her.

She said: "I am particularly interested in anyone who hasn't seen the police yet and was in The Tempest or in Heysham Drive, Wycombe Green, Draycot Walk and Kesteven Road," she said.

Miss Murray can be contacted on (01274) 728327.

No application for bail was made on behalf of Lyons and he was remanded in custody to appear in court again on November 28.

Today, Mr Elwood's daughter Rebecca, 22, said he was a devoted father to her and her brother Lee, 14, and a loving grandfather to her two children .

"I still can't believe he's gone. I am so angry. I keep expecting dad to walk up the garden path any moment," she said.

"He was a real family man and absolutely adored his grandchildren. Jordan is only 12-months-old so she is too young to understand.

"But Bradley is three and he wants to know where his granddad is. I've told him his granddad has gone to heaven and that he'll be looking down on him."