A PARTNER of a Good Samaritan allegedly murdered when she intervened in a street row has told a court he did not feel threatened before he too was attacked.

Anthony Tomlinson, 43, said his first thought was for Widnes mum-of-two Alison Wilson, 36, after he said he lost consciousness from a blow to the head from what he thought was a bottle of wine.

The couple had been concerned for the safety of a baby whose mother was arguing with Stephen Duggan, 28, near a chip shop in Widnes, Cheshire.

Ms Wilson thought it would be ‘less intimidating’ if she stepped in as peacemaker on the evening of March 7 this year, a jury at Liverpool Crown Court has heard.

She failed to stop the row though, and then Duggan allegedly turned on her and her partner of six years as he used a bottle of Echo Falls red wine as a weapon.

The Crown say Duggan felled Anthony Tomlinson, 43, with a blow to the top of his head, then thrust the now broken bottle into his face before he went on to push it into the area of Ms Wilson's left neck which severed her jugular vein.

Giving evidence, Mr Tomlinson explained how he and Ms Wilson, a mother of two girls, had decided to get a taxi from a pub to a takeaway in Page Lane near their home.

While in the chip shop he saw a woman run past, he said.

He said: "She was screaming and she had a car seat, a baby cradle, over her arm and it was swinging all over the place.

"I thought it was strange. It was late at night ... the baby chair being swung round in that manner. It just didn't seem right."

He returned to the waiting taxi which drove a short distance before he saw the same woman again in Frank Street with a male.

Mr Tomlinson told the jury: "One was trying to take the car seat off the other. They were fighting over the car seat.

"It was not gentle pushing. I thought there was a baby in there."

He said he asked the taxi driver to stop the vehicle as he wound down the window and asked: "Is everything OK?"

It was then that Ms Wilson stepped out of the taxi, he continued.

He said: "I think she went straight over to the girl. They were still tussling over the car seat. By that time I had made a decision to pay the taxi and walk from where we were.

"I walked over to Alison. The male was standing in between parked cars and Alison was in the middle between the male and female, pushing the male away from the female."

He said he asked "what's going on" but did not get a response.

Prosecutor Gordon Cole QC asked: "At that time, were you concerned at all?"

The witness replied: "I did not feel threatened at all. I didn't think anything would escalate."

He said that without warning he was then hit over the head.

"I knew what had hit me was hard," he said. "I just seen white. I didn't know what had happened, I think I was knocked unconscious straightaway "I remember I was lying on the floor and I came round. My first thought was for Al."

Visibly upset, he told the jury: "She was standing, with her hand on her neck.

"I went straight to Al and I told her to keep the pressure on it. I didn't think it was bad it as it was."

He added she had "a look of shock on her face" as neighbours came to assist with one bringing a chair for her.

Ms Wilson was taken to Whiston Hospital after Mr Tomlinson made a "hysterical" 999 call but died six days later.

Mr Tomlinson required plastic surgery for "a nasty wound" which sliced through his left cheek.

Asked how many stitches he required, he said the surgeon had told him he had lost count.

Mr Tomlinson said that full feeling had still not returned to the injured area.

Duggan, of Water Street, Runcorn, had previously pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Ms Wilson but the Crown did not accept the plea, the jury was told on Tuesday.

He denies murder and further counts of wounding Mr Tomlinson with intent and assault occasioning actual bodily harm to the baby who cannot be named for legal reasons.