Victim of Norwich stabbing would have taken less than a minute before collapsing from “catastrophic” injuries

David Hastings, 48, suffered 13 stab wounds including a fatal stab wound to the heart as well as a number of other potentially fatal wounds, a Norwich Crown Court jury was told.

Mr Hastings, formerly of Long Row, Norwich, was knifed in his back, chest, neck and mouth, while walking away from Rose Lane car park with his girlfriend in the early hours of June 23, last year,

Rolands Heinbergs, 23, of no fixed address, has pleaded not guilty to his murder.

Giving evidence, Home Office pathologist Virginia Fitzpatrick-Swallow told the jury how she had carried out a post mortem the day after Mr Hastings was pronounced dead.

She said there were some injuries associated with attempts by medical staff to try to save his life, but she then went through in detail the number of stab wounds he had received, describing how one stab wound had gone through his heart.

She told the jury: "That injury on its own was fatal."

She said he also had a number of potentially fatal wounds from the knife attack including stab wounds to the back and chest which penetrated the lungs and other stab wounds which had sliced through vital organs including his lung, liver, pancreas and blood vessels.

She said that Mr Hastings would have suffered a "catastrophic" level of blood loss from the stab wounds which would have required a moderate force to inflict and said: "It would have been less than a minute before he would collapse."

She also said there were no obvious defensive injuries.

Asked by prosecutor Wayne Cleaver whether the knife used in the attack could have been the same knife from Morrisons, for which discarded packaging had been found by detectives, Ms Fitzpatrick-Swallow said she did not think so, as the kitchen knife would not have been capable of inflicting some of the deep wounds.

The court heard that after his arrest Heinbergs made no comment in interview.

The trial continues.