A hotel worker was "besotted" with the girlfriend who stabbed him to death, a jury was told today.
Edward Miller, 20, was repeatedly knifed by Michelle Mills during a drunken argument at their rented cottage in the village of Scalford, near Melton.
His mother, Sara Westle, yesterday told the jury at Lincoln Crown Court that the couple had a volatile relationship and she had previously seen her son with his face "messed up" with scratches, cuts and bruises.
But Miss Westle told the court her son "worshipped the ground she walked on".
She said: "He was besotted by her. She was the apple of his eye. He would do anything for her.
"There was a very solid, intimate friendship there at the beginning and throughout."
Miss Westle said her son admitted to her that during one argument he pulled Mills off a settee.
She told the jury that on another occasion, when the couple were staying at her home in Eastwell, she asked Mills to leave following an incident.
"They were arguing. I heard shouting from the bedroom and went in. She was thumping his chest. Eddie was cornered. I tried to get between them. Both of them were shouting.
"Michelle started to throw ceramic items at him. It was mugs or plates."
She said Mills later smashed a mirror, which she threw across a room.
Miss Westle said Mills became aggressive when she drank alcohol.
"She changed into a different person in a negative way. She was very aggressive."
Edward's father Colin Miller told the jury: "It seemed they were on-off. They seemed madly in love sometimes and then they didn't seem as if they were together. I was aware there were occasions when they split up.
"I felt that Ed's life was turning round. He just seemed to grow up quite a bit.
"He mentioned that Michelle would get aggressive when she'd had a drink.
"I said that you either get drink out of the relationship or you get out of the relationship."
Mills is alleged to have repeatedly stabbed her boyfriend after they returned to their cottage in Kings Street, Scalford, following a Bonfire Night party at the village pub.
A neighbour heard arguing and Mills dialled 999 in the early hours telling the operator she had just stabbed her boyfriend.
Paramedics arrived to find Edward Miller bleeding heavily on the living room floor. He was taken to the Queens Medical Centre, in Nottingham, but was pronounced dead shortly after being admitted.
A postmortem examination showed he had 24 knife wounds to his chest, abdomen, back and arms, and he died as a result of stab wounds.
Mills (31), of King Street, Scalford, denies murder on November 6 last year. The jury has been told that she admits she was responsible for his death.
The trial continues.• Read more court and crime news at www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/crime
