METRO passengers who saw the stabbing of a fellow traveller after a row broke out on a packed train pieced together the final moments of his life yesterday.

David Moorhouse, 37, died after his former lover, Claire Park, 26, urged her partner, Sean Clarke, 25, to plunge a knife into him, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Trouble broke out after a chance meeting between the couple and Mr Moorhouse on a Metro train.

It was when the violence spilled out on to Pelaw Metro station that Mr Moorhouse was killed.

Passenger Michelle Parmley saw the argument break out on the train but said Mr Moorhouse did not appear to want to become involved.

She told jurors how Mr Moorhouse had attempted to kick the knife away as Mr Clarke lunged at him.

She said: "They started to scuffle and the man was trying to kick the knife out of the other man's hand but he couldn't. He was backing off. The man with the knife was trying to stab him."

Michelle Selby, who was travelling on the Metro with her daughter, said she heard shouting and swearing before Mr Moorhouse fell down and died.

Mr Moorhouse died from a stab wound to the chest and was found to have six further wounds to his body, right arm and right leg.

Mr Clarke and Ms Park, who prosecutors said had an ardent dislike of Mr Moorhouse, fled to her mother's house in Wardley, Gateshead, where they disposed of the murder weapon and another knife in a neighbour's garden.

They then took a taxi to Ms Park's father's house in Hebburn to borrow money before heading back to Heworth bus station, where they were arrested.

The couple, of Zetland Street, Darlington, deny murder and the trial continues.