Mr Court had told the jury how he thought he and h

Mr Court had told the jury how he thought he and his girlfriend were just sleeping as they both lay critically ill on the bathroom floor.

The 27-year-old, who designs electrical components for McLaren engines, said the newly decorated garden flat was ‘ideal’ for him and Miss Rhys-Davies because they had a cat.

On the morning of the incident, Mr Court said he felt increasingly sick at work.

Later he vomited on the bathroom floor and he found Miss Rhys-Davies ‘panicking and in distress.

‘

‘At the time I thought and maybe still do, that she was panicking because I was obviously very ill.

‘She was on her hands and knees next to me in the bathroom.

‘

Mr Court then passed out on the bathroom floor.

‘I remember dreaming – I don’t I know when that was.

I remember hearing the phone ringing within my dream.

‘I remember seeing parts of the bathroom.

I remember knocking at the front door – loud knocking.

‘I didn’t answer.

I was comfortable where I was, lying on the floor of the bathroom.

‘

‘I didn’t have the energy to move.

Amanda was lying beside me.

She was unconscious.

I don’t know why but I thought we were just sleeping.

‘Sometime after, I don’t know how long after, I heard the window of the front door being smashed.

‘

Mr Wheeler had told the court of his profound regret for the tragedy.

‘A young girl like my own children has died.

It’s tragic,’ he said.

Wheeler had asked British Gas for a service two months before the accounts clerk was killed but the appointment was cancelled.

An engineer did not arrive to complete the pnds stlg 141 ‘three-star’ test until February 28 – a month after Miss Rhys-Davies died.

ends

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