A DOG-WALKER has told how he fought in vain to save a mother-of-three who had been repeatedly stabbed in the street.

Anthony Williams – a qualified live-saver – tried to resuscitate Kelly Franklin, but told a jury: "There was nothing I could do. I'm absolutely gutted.

Ms Franklin, 29, is said to have been knifed more than 30 times by her ex-partner, Torbjorn Kettlewell, in Hartlepool last August.

Both Kettlewell, 30, and his lover, Julie Wass, 48, deny a charge of murder, and are on trial at Teesside Crown Court.

The court had already heard that Kettlewell was helped to flee by married Wass, who had started a sexual relationship with him.

After splitting with his ex-partner, Kettlewell continued to hope to get her and the older woman together in a threesome, prosecutor Jamie Hill, QC, said.

Kettlewell lost custody of their children after he accidentally shot one of them in the face with an air rifle.

The court heard he was angry with his ex-partner and also concerned she was moving on with her life.

At around 9pm on August 3, he searched for her and "brutally" attacked Ms Franklin in Oxford Road with a kitchen knife he took from his flat.

Terrified members of the public witnessed the stabbing, in which she suffered catastrophic injuries.

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Flowers laid in memory of Kelly Franklin

Wass had driven him there and then sped him away from the scene, taking him to woods in Trimdon, County Durham, where he could hide and destroy his phone.

Mr Williams told the jury on the third day of the trial how he had seen a man looking angry and agitated, and a woman who seemed upset as he walked his dog.

"I heard an alarm going off, like a rape alarm. It was really loud and piercing," he added. "I swung around and after a few seconds it went quiet. That's when I saw all the commotion.

The Northern Echo:

The scene on Oxford Road, Hartlepool, after the death of Kelly Franklin

"They were arguing and I just saw the male lunge for the other person, and there were hands going.

"The next minute, I think, he had her in a head-lock. She was on her knees, and I saw this repeated [demonstrating a flurry of blows to the jury] and she went on her back.

"He got up and ran. I ran to the lady lying on the floor. I concentrated or, her and she was being helped by another woman.

"I tried to do CPR, but there was no pulse and there was nothing I could do. I knew she had died, and I just collapsed on the floor in tears."

The trial continues.