A JURY was today entering the second day of its deliberations to decide the fate of a Huddersfield hairdresser accused of attempted murder.

Andrew Banks, 42, is on trial for the attempted murder of his 22-year-old ex fiancée Rebecca Richards.

He is alleged to have subjected her to a violent attack, including stabbing her 20 times, at the Wheatley, Halifax, home they shared in December last year.

The jury of five men and seven women retired just before 3pm yesterday to consider their verdict after a week-long trial at Bradford Crown Court.

During it they heard evidence that Banks, who worked at the Roger David salon in Byram Street, Huddersfield, allegedly attacked the bank worker after she ended their four-year relationship.

The jury heard that twice-divorced Banks bombarded his former lover with text messages pleading with her to take him back, but she refused.

She had started to date other men and when she visited his house to collect her belongings he found a flirtatious text message from another man on her phone.

It is then he is alleged to have snapped, subjecting her to an horrific attack during which he punched, kicked and stabbed her repeatedly with kitchen knives.

Banks has pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, but denies intending to kill.

Prosecutor Andrew Kershaw QC said that throughout his trial Banks had changed his story to fit with the evidence, “fatally wounding his credibility” in doing so.

He said Banks was obsessive and had used emotional blackmail to get at his ex-lover.

He said: “The emotional blackmail was on a monstrous scale, he bombarded her with texts.

“It shows an obsessiveness about her and a possessiveness about her.

“The night this attack happened a crime of jealous rage was underpinned by his obsessiveness of her, his unwillingness to let her go, his wounded vanity.

“This ensured that the very worst of his personality was brought out.”

But John Elvidge, defending, told the jury that while Banks admitted wanting to harm his ex he had never intended to kill her.

He said Banks had been foolish in initially denying to police that he had attacked Miss Richards, but his lies were not enough to prove that he intended to kill.

He also asked the jury to take into account glowing character references they had heard from people who knew him.

He added: “Had he intended to kill her that would have been easily achieved, it would have been easy to achieve a fatal wound. It's unlikely and improbable that he would have formed an intent to kill her.’’