The girlfriend of a man who was stabbed to death in Co Wicklow has told a jury that she witnessed him being 'slaughtered' by the man accused of his murder.

Darren Houlden - of The Crescent, Meadowvale, Arklow in Co Wicklow - denies murdering Stephen Kavanagh in the early hours of May 6th last year.

Rachel Kearney and Stephen Kavanagh started seeing each other just a few weeks before he was killed.

On the weekend in question, she described smoking joints and crack cocaine with him and the accused, Darren Houlden, at Darren’s home in Arklow.

She said Stephen hid €2,000 worth of drugs in Darren’s bedroom and everything was fine until his stash went missing.

She said Stephen blamed Darren, who repeatedly denied taking them, and later that night she claimed she witnessed the accused stabbing her boyfriend to death.

She said he was on top of him with both knees on his back. She said he was 'slaughtering him' and described the alleged attack as 'overkill.'

She claimed she grabbed his arm and asked him to stop and after he calmly told her he would, she said he then stabbed him again in the head and neck.

Mr Houlden denies the murder charge.

Reporting by Frank Greaney