THE girlfriend of a man accused of murder told a court: “He told me he had stabbed someone”.

And the witness told a jury yesterday she saw Luke Elliott washing a knife shortly after he had announced he had stabbed someone.

Amber Cooper said she had previously been involved in a relationship with Elliott and they were talking about getting back together so she had agreed to spend time with him on July 6 last year.

They had been with a number of friends at a house in Marsden when Elliott told her he was going out to see Anthony Driver, the man with whom he is now co-accused of the murder and attempted murder of two men from Scotland.

During that evening she had seen him drink some brandy and take some of the drug M-cat.

Miss Cooper told Leeds Crown Court Elliott was gone for at least an hour and when he returned with Driver, he said “that he had stabbed someone.”

He then went into the kitchen and when she followed him he was washing a knife with a curved shape blade and he also rinsed some gloves at the sink.

She told the jury it looked like blood in the sink and she commented to Elliott about a smell but he did not respond.

“I said that it smelt like someone had died, not that I knew that then.”

She said they returned to the living room.

The only comment she remembered by Driver was him saying there had been some trouble.

Later after she and Elliott went to bed she asked him what he had done.

“He said again he had stabbed someone. He said about a man being laid on the floor and another boy started running, he grabbed him and stabbed him in the back.”

She told Peter Moulson QC, prosecuting, that Elliott also mentioned about a football shirt being in the fridge.

Elliott, 22 of Main Avenue, Cowlersley, and Driver, 36 of Grange Cottages, Marsden, deny the murder of Craig Hepburn, 19 and the attempted murder of his friend Connor Paton, also 19.

The jury has heard the two had only been in Huddersfield a few hours visiting Craig’s uncle when they suffered stab wounds in the early hours of July 7 from which Mr Hepburn later died.

Under cross-examination by Andrew Hall QC, defending Elliott, Miss Cooper agreed she had not immediately given police that account saying: “I was confused and scared” but denied she had added things since as a result of what others had said.

Mr Hall suggested she was angry with Elliott because of the way he had humiliated her seeing another girl at the same time as her.

He suggested she now hated Elliott and had no reason to do him any favours. She agreed she had read about the case in the press but denied that had influenced her evidence.

Under re-examination by Mr Moulson she said she had been “getting a lot of stick” and been accused of making things up but told the jury she was not lying.

The trial continues on Monday.