A KILLER was sacked from one of his pizza shop jobs because of his fascination for knives and his “erratic” behaviour, a murder trial jury has heard.

Takeaway owner Davood Bagaban said he was worried about Ahemdreza Fathi taking blades to his bedroom and was fed-up with his regular rows with colleagues.

Mr Bagaban sacked Fathi from the Number 1 Pizza shop, in Consett, months before the 22-year-old moved to Hartlepool for a new job and home.

The jury at Teesside Crown Court has heard that Fathi was looked after and given a room by fellow Iranian national Romano Taddi, 54, from March last year.

It is said the two men fell out in the early summer when Mr Fathi admitted he was gay – a capital offence in their homeland – and was asked to leave.

The court heard that on July 18, a Friday night, Fathi broke into his former landlord’s home and waited for him to return before he stabbed him following an argument.

Fathi is alleged to have attacked Mr Taddi again the next morning after another row, and knifed him to death before fleeing in a car stolen from Consett.

Alan Chapman, a neighbour in Kimberley Street, Hartlepool, told the jury that he heard a commotion next door as he watched boxing on the Friday night.

He described the highpitched noise as “a really loud scream, like someone screaming for help” which was followed later by sobbing and mumbling in a foreign language.

Fathi, formerly of Grange Road, Hartlepool, denies murder, but the jury has been told he is pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Mr Bagaban told the court that Fathi had initially been hard working and reliable, but that his behaviour became erratic and worrying before he was dismissed.

The trial continues.