A DRUG dealer allegedly killed a customer with an ornamental two-pronged fork and dumped his body next to a wheelie bin in the street.

David Ablett tried to cover up the killing by hiding the unusual hand-made murder weapon and getting a friend to carry the body across the street, a jury has been told.

Ablett, aged 52, has gone on trial at Exeter Crown Court accused of the murder of 38-year-old drug user Matthew Jackson in his flat in Teignmouth in June this year.

The prosecution say he stabbed him three times during a fight, leaving six fatal wounds in his chest, liver and heart.

The jury have been shown footage of Ablett using the fork as a weapon inside his flat on a previous occasion in which he threw it at the head of a mannequin until it embedded itself into its face.

The body was dragged across the street after the killing but a trail of blood or grease led police straight back to the front door of Ablett’s home.

Ablett, aged 52, of Barnpark Terrace, Teignmouth, denies murder and says he was acting in self-defence.

Mr Simon Laws, QC, prosecuting, said Ablett was a dealer and Jackson was a customer who walked from his home in Bishopsteignton to his flat to buy or take class A drugs on the night of June 2 this year.

He said the killing must have happened late at night or in the early hours because Ablett rang a friend called Neil Hinton at 2.54am on June 3 to ask him to help move the body.

Mr Jackson suffered bruises and scratches to his face and six puncture wounds made by three blows from the prongs of the distinctive weapon.

Mr Laws said: ’Mr Jackson had been repeatedly stabbed in the chest. He had not been killed in the street, where he was found, but inside the flat where Ablett lived.

’He was dumped on the pavement by some bins. Ablett did everything he could to prevent the police from identifying him as the killer, but these efforts failed.

’There will be no doubt at all he was responsible for stabbing Mr Jackson. He has abandoned the pretence it was not him and now says he was defending himself.

’We say the circumstances of the killing and the level of force he used show there is nothing to suggest he was defending himself.

’Ablett was not a man built for fighting and he compensated by having lethal weapons on hand in his flat.’

Mr Laws said there were texts on Mr Jackson’s phone about robbing a drug dealer but these did not give Ablett ’a licence to kill’. He said Ablett had some injuries to his head but they were superficial compared to those suffered by Mr Jackson.

He said a knuckleduster was found in a toolbox and the fork, in its ornamental sheath, was found in nearby gardens, along with Mr Jackson’s phone and empty wallet.

He played two clips recorded on a mobile phone of a previous visitor to Ablett’s flat which showed him using the fork as a throwing knife, aiming at the head of a dummy until he scored a direct hit on the nose and it stuck in.

He said it showed that Ablett owned the fork, saw it as a weapon, knew it was capable of causing serious harm, and was willing to use it.

The trial continues.