A MAN accused of murder who was told to give himself up at his local RUC station because police were too busy to pick him up has gone on trial for a "savage" stabbing in which the victim was knifed at least 26 times.
Belfast Crown Court heard that the body of Mr Robert McConnell (46) lay undetected in his Annadale Drive flat for more than 24 hours last February before his alleged killer called the police.
The court also heard that when the accused, Mr George Elliott (30) of Annadale Grove, Belfast, rang 999 to confess, he was told police could not pick him up because they were "extremely busy".
The trial judge, Mr Justice Higgins, heard that Mr Elliott made four 999 calls in the early hours of February 4th, 1996, in which he pleaded with police to come and arrest him.
In the first, at 1.55 a.m., a man identifying himself initially as a "Mr Elliott", and then as George Elliott, said he would like to report a murder. Asked whom he, had killed, Mr Elliott allegedly replied: "I killed someone last night and I would like you to come and arrest me please."
The call was traced to a public phone box on Sunnyside Street in the Ormeau area of Belfast. Some time later a second call was received in which Mr Elliott said he was not joking and that his "hands are just going mad".
During the third call, at 2.22 a.m., Mr Elliott complained police had left him standing waiting and repeated he was "confessing to a murder - I'm not codding about that".
Mr Elliott also said he had been to Ballynafeigh police station, could not get in, and was told to stay where he was and police would come and get him. "You've been telling me that for half an hour," Mr Elliott replied, only to be told by police in return, "Well, they are extremely busy".
Mr Elliott allegedly then told police he did not think the body had been discovered and accused police of thinking he was "telling lies". In a final call he said he had been back to the police station but still could not get in. At this stage he was instructed that if he rang the bell "a sergeant would be waiting for him".
The sergeant who saw Mr Elliott said he was intoxicated and agitated and that he told him he had "killed a guy" in a flat at Annadale Drive. The accused also allegedly told him that he went back to the flat and "he was still there and he was stone cold".
Asked why he had killed the man, Mr Elliott allegedly replied that he and Mr McConnell had had an argument and the only thing he could remember was that he had "stabbed the man again and again".
During later interviews he allegedly told detectives he had been drunk when he had gone to Mr McConnell's flat armed with a carving knife in the early hours of February 3rd. He said that they had previously argued over a dog. He had also heard rumours that Mr McConnell had been convicted of sex offences and he decided to go and find out the "truth of these matters".
Mr Elliott claimed that they began arguing when Mr McConnell ordered him from the flat and jumped at him after he, had produced the knife. The trial continues today.