The trial of an Irishman accused of killing a Spaniard during a fight in Tenerife over two years ago has entered its second day.
Keith Burke, 21, is accused of murdering ferry company employee Abraham Baez, 24, by stabbing him in the neck with a knife after a row.
The row is said to have initially involved the two men's girlfriends, before turning violent.
Mr Burke's partner, Sara Stuart, 30, is standing trial this week on a lesser charge of wounding Mr Baez's partner, Laura Negrin.
The Irish pair face jail terms of 17 and three years respectively if convicted, although a parallel private prosecution brought against Ms Stuart by the parents of the deceased man is seeking to have her charge raised to murder also.
During yesterday’s opening submissions, Mr Burke, who has been on remand in a Tenerife jail since 30 April 2010, admitted he carried a knife "for his own safety" because he had been robbed on a previous occasion in Playa de Las Américas, the holiday resort where the couple were living temporarily after leaving Ireland to find work in the Canary Islands a few weeks earlier.
However, he retracted confessions made to police after his arrest, and said he had been coerced into admitting he had stabbed the victim.
He also retracted similar statements made in letters to his girlfriend, insisting that he had taken the blame so she could be released from jail.
The court heard evidence given by several witnesses to the violent confrontation between the two couples, who had been drinking heavily in local bars and clubs during the hours leading up to the stabbing.
Police who were called to the 6am incident from the police station a short distance away described how they were attempting to calm the deceased's partner when Ms Stuart approached and was immediately identified by the woman as the person who had "hit her on the head with the rock".
"She seemed to be trying to apologise for what had happened when a bloodstained Mr Burke arrived and pulled her away from the officer who was talking to her" said one of the policemen in evidence.
Mr Burke was then identified by the Spanish woman as having taken part in the fight and was detained immediately.
A knife, believed to have used in the fatal stabbing, was recovered from a nearby garden 16 hours later, and was identified in court as almost certainly being from the kitchen of the holiday apartment shared by the Irish couple at the time.
Several witnesses, including an employee of an all-night convenience store yards from the spot and two delivery men who had to stop their van because the narrow road was blocked by the fighting men, told the court that Ms Stuart "appeared to be trying to separate the two men" and was knocked to the ground twice.
Both defendants were described by police as acting "very violently" after they were detained, and said they needed to be restrained in the police cars in which they were driven away.
The trial will continue tomorrow with the presentation of forensic evidence relating to the rock found near the Spanish couple's car, and the knife recovered at the scene.
