A PORTUGUESE man has gone on trial accused of murdering father-of-one Frederick Moore in Bexleyheath.

Andre Ribeiro, 21, denies murdering Mr Moore on December 8 last year, in Bynon Avenue.

Richard Wormald, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey: “He is a man of previous good character. He has not been in trouble with police previously in England or Portugal.

“But on the 8th of December last year he was in an altercation with another man called Frederick Moore, who he, Mr Ribeiro, says was attacking him with a steering lock.

“He stabbed the man twice and those stab wounds caused his death. Mr Ribeiro says he acted lawfully and in self-defence.”

Jurors heard Mr Moore, a 36-year-old Irishman known as Paddy, lived in Belvedere and had an eight-year-old son called Freddie, who did not live with him.

Mr Moore often stayed at his girlfriend’s house in Bynon Avenue, Bexleyheath – opposite the bedsit where the defendant was staying with friends.

Mr Wormald said: “Gemma, his girlfriend, will tell you Mr Moore had problems with drink and drugs. She says he had a bad temper but he was never violent to her or anyone else she knew.

“Police records show he had run into trouble due to drink and drugs a number of times and evidence shows on the night of his death he was drinking and was in a violent mood.”

The court heard Mr Moore’s friend, Harry, also lived at the bedsit and “Mr Moore tended to throw his weight around” when visiting.

A fortnight before his death, there had been a run-in between Mr Moore and Ribeiro when Mr Moore knocked on his bedroom door at 2am asking for a cigarette lighter but was told to go away.

On December 8 the pair came across each other in the communal kitchen of the bedsit and began arguing.

Mr Wormald said: “Mr Ribeiro got a kitchen knife and stuck it in the side of the fridge so Mr Moore left and came back 15 to 20 minutes later.

“He came back with a group of three, possibly four, of his friends. It seems his pride had been injured.”

Mr Wormald added: “At least some of them had weapons, they had poles wrapped in tape.

“Mr Moore was carrying a steering lock.”

A fight broke out inside the property in the first floor lobby.

Mr Wormald told the jury of six men and six women: “Mr Ribeiro says Mr Moore hit him across the head once with a steering lock and was about to strike him a second time when he stabbed him in self-defence.

“Mr Ribeiro’s Portuguese friends, who were immediately to hand and were involved in the fight, do not agree with Mr Ribeiro’s account.

“One says it was not Mr Moore who struck Mr Ribeiro at all.

“Another says that he was the first to encounter Mr Moore, that the two of them fought at the top of the stairs, that he grappled with Mr Moore and took the steering lock.

“It was at that moment when the steering lock had been taken from him Mr Ribeiro stabbed him.”

Mr Wormald added: “Mr Moore was stabbed not once but twice. One was to his chest that lacerated his heart. The other was to his back in the upper shoulder.”

Mr Moore and his friends ran out of the house while back inside the property Ribeiro told his friends he had stabbed someone.

Police were called and the knife Ribeiro used was placed into a cereal box.

The court heard the first police officers to arrive at the scene found Mr Moore lying on the ground holding his chest and saying he could not breathe.

London Ambulance Service also attended but Mr Moore was pronounced dead at the scene.

The trial continues.