A row over the temperature of a shower led to a bloody scene in which a couple were stabbed to death and a young man and a teenager were seriously wounded, a court heard.

The man who died, Simon Gorecki, had been taking the shower when Foster Christian turned on a tap in the kitchen and caused the temperature to change.

When Mr Gorecki shouted out, Christian responded “**** off you mug”, a jury was told.

Soon afterwards, he is alleged to have fatally wounded both Mr Gorecki, 48, and 40-year-old Natasha Sadler and seriously injured her son Connaugh Harris, 20, and a 16-year-old boy.

Prosecutor Philip Bennetts QC said Mr Gorecki, who was 5ft 6in tall, was stabbed five times, four of the wounds being to his back.

Ms Sadler, who was the same height, had several wounds, one of which entered above her left eyebrow and “followed down” inside her lower jaw.

Mr Gorecki, a former fishmonger at the Goods Shed in Canterbury, died as a result of a collapsed right lung and Ms Sadler from a wound to her heart.

Mr Bennetts said at the time of the shower incident at about 7pm on March 29 this year Connaugh was at his mother’s home. He heard sounds of abuse and went with the boy to the house in Dickens Avenue, Canterbury.

When they arrived Christian, a 54-year-old mechanic, was in his room there. Mum-of-three Ms Sadler, who attended Hartsdown School in Margate, and Mr Gorecki were downstairs.

“Connaugh tried to calm the situation,” Mr Bennetts told the all-male jury. “It appeared for a moment there was calm.

“Foster Christian then shouted further abuse. Natasha went to his room.”

She was followed by Mr Gorecki, Connaugh and the teenager, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

There was pushing and shoving between Christian and Ms Sadler. Connaugh tried to intervene, but was struck by Christian.

The teenager punched Christian, who then retaliated with a knife covered by a plastic bag, said Mr Bennetts.

“Using the knife, he fatally wounded Simon and Natasha and seriously injured (the teenager) and Connaugh,” he continued.

Christian afterwards called the police. He at first said it was his knife but then changed it to “their knife”. He claimed he grabbed it off them and they grabbed it back.

When the police arrived at 7.40pm, the teenager was lying at the top of the driveway, having been given first aid by Connaugh.

Mr Gorecki was on the floor in the kitchen. Connaugh had tried help his mother and carried out CPR on Mr Gorecki.Ms Sadler was on the floor at the threshold of the kitchen and hallway at the base of the stairs near the front door.

A police officer saw Christian, who had a bleeding cut above his right eye, walking down the stairs speaking on his phone. She shouted to him to go back upstairs.

He sat on the stairs. Another officer asked if he had a knife, and he said he did not.

"They attacked me with a knife. I got it off them and fought back. They were hitting me and attacking me. They took the knife back" - Foster Christian, to police

He claimed: “They attacked me with a knife. I got it off them and fought back. They were hitting me and attacking me. They took the knife back.”

Mr Bennetts said the teenager had a wound to his right forearm, a superficial injury to his right thigh and a cut to his abdomen.

Connaugh was taken to the same hospital and treated for his wounds.There was also a large bleed to the iliac vein which returns blood from the leg to the heart, and a 3cm hole in his large bowel. After surgery at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, he was transferred to intensive care.

Most of the blood staining was upstairs around the threshold of Christian’s bedroom. DNA samples indicated it could have come from Ms Sadler.

“One explanation for the blood distribution around the top of the stairs is that she stood or knelt on one of the upper steps facing up the stairs while blood pumped from the wound on her left eyebrow,” said Mr Bennetts.

No alcohol was detected in Christian’s blood. Both Mr Gorecki and Ms Sadler had drunk alcohol.

Naomi Toro, 36, had arrived at the house and was seen by a police officer to leave with the knife used to inflict the injuries.

When arrested on March 30 she took officers to where she had thrown the weapon into the River Stour from the King Street bridge.

“There is no dispute that Foster Christian killed Simon Gorecki and Natasha Sadler-Ellis,” said Mr Bennetts.

“The defence served on the prosecution and the court a defence statement. In short, it is asserted that Foster Christian was acting in reasonable lawful self-defence.

“The prosecution case is what he did was not reasonable. At the very least stabbing with a knife demonstrates an intention to cause really serious bodily harm.

“If so, Foster Christian would be guilty of murder.”

Christian’s 999 call was played to the jury. In it he told the operator: “I have just been attacked in the house. They came to my door and started an argument and then they started lashing into me.”

Asked if he was OK, he replied: “No, I’m not. They were hitting me with beer cans and bottles. They were just beating me and beating me, and they are still here.

“I don’t know what they started on me for. It has been going on since the weekend. It all came up again. I have still got the knife here. It is one of my kitchen knives.

“I have used it, yes I have. All of them were attacking me. Is the police coming?

“I don’t know what they started on me for..." - Foster Christian's 999 call

“They just laid into me. I have been in my room since it started... I just grabbed it back.”

Christian added that the police were there. He could be heard shouting: “One of them has got the knife. I grabbed it off them.”

Mr Bennetts said: “You will want to consider why in that first account he says he was attacked by people with cans and objects but no mention of a knife.

“When the knife goes from the property as a result of a conversation with a friend he says it was their knife and then took it back.”

In an interview recorded at the William Harvey Hospital where he was being treated, the teeange boy said they went to the house after Connaugh received a message on Facebook from his mother.

He said they arrived at the house to "shouting and fighting".

"We started heading upstairs," he said. "Natasha was shouting at Christian. He was saying 'I haven't got a problem with you Tasha.'

"We were about to leave the house and he said '**** face', something like that.
"Connaugh went upstairs with her. I followed. I think Connaugh was trying to protect her.

"A fight broke out. Connaugh got involved. Simon did. I got involved trying to protect her.
"I have no idea where the knife appeared. I didn't see a knife. I didn't think about it. I thought it was strange.

"They were pushing him away. I was trying to punch him away as well.

"I was just dazed at that point. I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. I thought it was a punch.
"I didn't realise anything. Then it sort of calmed down. I heard her say: 'You had better put that down.'

"I looked and my guts were hanging out. I thought 'Oh my God, I have been stabbed'.

"I was like 'Am I going to die?' to Connaugh. I was lying down.

"I looked and my guts were hanging out..." - stabbed teenager

"They were pushing him away. He was going backwards. I punched him. I think I made contact with his head.

"I hit him once or twice. It felt like a punch from Christian. I started stumbling down the stairs.

"Connaugh must have been just behind me. I was focusing trying to get downstairs.

"I didn't feel right at all. I looked down and saw my guts basically. I looked at Connaugh. 'Am I going to die?'

"He was 'No mate'. I lost consciousness."

Questioned on a TV link to the court by Rajin Menon QC, defending, he said Connaugh was on leave from the Army in Cyprus.

He said of Mr Gorecki: "I didn't know too much but he was a very passive, friendly guy."

Connaugh had heard someone being horrible and mouthy to Natasha, he said.

"We went not to intervene but diffuse the situation and take her home," he continued.

There was nothing about her behaviour to suggest she had had too much to drink.

"We heard shouting and arguing inside the house," he said.

"I am pretty sure she was shouting at Foster from downstairs."

He believed the argument was about somebody stamping on a phone.

The teenager said the they almost managed to get Natasha out of the house until Christian shouted more abuse.

He said: "She said about him creeping on her. I remember her saying about coming past my house staring through my window and treating everyone like s*** bullying everyone.

The teenager said he remembered Mr Gorecki saying: "I am going to run through you."

He continued: "This man, a small man, was just expressing his anger. I interpreted it as maybe punch him."

Asked if it was a threat to stab Christian, he replied: "Not a chance. Nothing like that went through my mind at all.

Asked if any of them were armed, he said: "Of course we were not armed. Without a doubt that was a true answer."

Mr Menon: "You didn't see any of your number holding a knife?"

Teenager: "Of course not."

Asked why he joined in, he said: "It was instinct. I saw Natasha, Simon and Connaugh pushing him back.

"There are three people there. There is one of him. How are three people not overwhelming him?

"I saw them losing the fight when they should be overwhelming him."

He wept as he said: "Unless you have been in that situation...I was doing what I thought was right."

Christian, he said, was "doing stabbing motions".

He added: "I thought they were punches. I didn't know for definite that was a knife. I didn't see it."

The teenager said none of them entered Christian's bedroom.

QC: "All hell broke loose on the landing when Mr Gorecki rushed forward to Foster Christian saying 'You black -------'. That's what happened."

Teenager: "No, no."

QC: "He was armed with a knife wasn't he?"

Teenager: "No."

Asked if he found it funny, he replied: "I find it funny how you can defend this."

He added: "I did punch him - a 16-year-old - because I was defending Natasha."

QC: "This entire incident blew up in the way it did because the four of you decided to go upstairs, rather than leave the house. That's the reality of the situation isn't it?"

Teenager: "It happened because he was shouting abuse and bullying everyone in the house. We could have not gone upstairs and confronted him, but that has happened."

Connaugh Harris will give evidence tomorrow.

Christian, who lived in the same house as Mr Gorecki, denies two charges of murder and two of wounding with intent.

The trial continues.