A man named as the killer by the victim of a fatal stabbing was today sensationally cleared of murder.

Jamie Simmons, 29, died following an "altercation" in Cambridge Crescent in Shepway, Maidstone.

Kieron Nicholson was accused of his murder and denied the charges from the start.

The trial was put on hold for two weeks after three jury members tested positive for coronavirus.

But today a jury took just under three hours to find him not guilty of causing the death of former friend Jamie Simmons.

Nicholson had to follow final speeches and summing up from a room at Elmley Prison.

The 10-person jury acquitted him of both murder and manslaughter - which resulted in members of his family bursting into tears.

The jury had heard how an argument began on May 4 this year at a block of flats in Wells House, Cambridge Crescent in Shepway.

Prosecutor Ahmed Hossain QC, told how Mr Simmons had clashed with a friend of Mr Nicholson, Jack McCann over a remark made to his partner Charlotte Muddiman.

Mr McCann told him to take care of his children while he "took care" of Ms Muddiman.

Mr Nicholson was then alleged to have grabbed the steak knife before shouting: "Get the **** out or I will stab you!" as Ms Muddiman tried to shield her partner and received two superficial cuts to her arm.

She later told police that Mr Nicholson had been holding the knife in his right hand and "making jabbing motions".

Mr Hossain said that when Ms Muddiman tried to usher her boyfriend out of the flat she noticed a red stain on his chest and "realised he had been stabbed twice".

The prosecutor said another neighbour, alerted by the noise of the argument, then began recording the incident.

He told the jury: "You will hear Jamie Simmons in his dying moments, saying: "Kieron, Kieron you mother of *****...why have you got to get involved?"

The jury also heard how "as he weakened through blood loss and sadly with only about 15 minutes to live", Mr Simmons identified his attacker, saying: "Kieron stabbed me. Why would he do that? Why would he do that?"

But Mr Nicholson, 29, of Vicarage Lane, East Farleigh, denied carrying out the horror stabbing.

He told the jury that Mr McCann, his best friend, carried out the killing.

Mr Nicholson said he was "shocked and angry" when he saw Mr McCann giving his evidence at the trial.

He said: "I thought he would admit it."

Mr McCann has denied a suggestion that he and not Mr Nicholson had carried out the attack.

Ms Muddiman alleged that Mr Nicholson was the knife man who killed her partner.

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