A MAN lay dying in the street from stabs wounds as his killer drove off in a Jaguar, a court was told.

Marco Schiroli was killed just over a year ago, on New Year’s Eve, 2002, and it was not until June that the man accused of his death was arrested - thousands of miles away on Spain’s Costa Del Sol.

Paul Brown, from Rochester, who had worked as a doorman at various licensed premises, had come across Mr Schiroli before that fatal night.

But, as prosecutor Stephen Hockman, QC, told a jury, they might think he did nothing to provoke or justify what Mr Brown did that night.

In an incident that lasted a matter of seconds, the victim sustained two stab wounds, one of which pierced his heart.

The knife that caused the fatal wound had never been found, said Mr Hockman.

The jury at Maidstone Crown Court has heard from one of Mr Schiroli’s closest friends, Dean Mills, who had been with him in the hours leading to his death.

They had visited several pubs in the Rochester area and Marco was “merry”, said Mr Mills.

He told how he and his friend were set upon by three men as they walked past the Vineyard pub in Rochester's Maidstone Road. When it was over he found Mr Schiroli dying in the road.

Mr Brown, 37, denies murder. The trial continues.