HAYLEY MURDER TRIAL: HUGO Quintas killed his girlfriend in a prolonged, deliberate and fatal' attack, Bristol Crown Court heard this week.

The 23-year-old waitress, who was between six and eight weeks pregnant, was found dead at her home at Carders Corner, Trowbridge, on June 11. Her throat had been cut from ear to ear.

Portuguese national Hugo Quintas, 24, who fled the country a day after the killing, had used a craft knife to inflict the eight-inch wound. The former Bowyers worker, of Seymour Court, Trowbridge, denies murder but has admitted man-slaughter on the grounds of provocation.

Miss Richards' body was found by police, who were called in by her family when they became worried as they were unable to contact her. Officers forced their way in to make the grim discovery Opening the case for the prosecution on Monday, Mark Evans QC told the jury Quintas' claim he lost control when provoked should not be believed. "This was deliberate and calculated, not a man acting under a loss of self-control," he said."

Quintas told police he lost control after Miss Richards told him she had slept with another man and then taunted him about it, and said he doubted he was the father of the child she was carrying. Mr Evans told the jury the choice of weapon and type of injuries Miss Evans received pointed to a deliberate attack.

He said in Quintas' account of his actions he claimed he lost his self-control, went into the kitchen of Miss Richards' flat and removed a knife from a drawer before closing the living room door and slitting her throat.

Mr Evans said these were not the actions of a man who had lost control. He said there were two sets of sharp kitchen knives sitting on the work surface. "That explanation is not really credible. Why go rummaging around in a drawer for a craft knife when these potentially deadly weapons are sitting out there?" he said.

"Picture this man who has apparently lost self-control. Instead of using an obvious weapon he searches a drawer. "Having found it he returns to the landing and bedroom area, carefully closing the living room door behind him."

"All this, the prosecution say, is firmly away from provocation." He told the jury this was not the sort of frenzied attack, with multiple stab wounds, that might be expected where the culprit had lost control.

Hours after the killing Quintas left Trowbridge and flew from Bristol to Portugal, sparking an international manhunt. He was finally arrested on June 21 and flown back to the UK to be charged with murder.

His friend, Portuguese dairy worker Joaquim Da Cunha, appears with him in court charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice by helping him escape the country and covering up evidence.

  • The trial continues