A MAN accused of murdering his friend in Trinant said he stabbed him in a “moment of madness”, a jury heard.

Paul Mapps, 26, of Marshfield Road, denies murdering Ian Davies, 27, on January 11 this year.

The jury at Cardiff Crown Court were read five police interviews with Mapps that took place in the days following the incident at his Marshfield Road home.

Mapps said he had been celebrating his sister Dawn Mapps’ 30th birthday on both January 10, and January 11, and was on a cocktail of ketamine, valium, cocaine, mephedrone and alcohol when he stabbed Mr Davies.

He said Mr Davies had stormed into his house, uninvited, with a bottle of vodka he believed he would “smash over his head”. Mapps told DC Steven Thomas and DC Matthew Clarke he had been cutting a pie when Mr Davies “charged” at him.

He said in interview: “There was no time to react, all I could do was turn around. I didn’t want to hurt him. It was just a moment of madness... Earlier on in the day, he was kicking off at me and he wanted to fight me, then he hit me. I told him to ‘stay away from my house, don’t come back here’.”

In a fifth interview with police on January 13, Mapps was played 999 calls made from his home.

In a call to the ambulance service, Mapps said the attacker had run off and there was a hammer involved. When asked why he had lied, Mapps said “I just panicked, I knew I was in trouble”.

Mapps told police he left the scene as he needed to “sort his head out”. He added: “I rang my father and said ‘dad, I need to speak to you, I’ve done something bad’.”

Proceeding.