Dying man who rang 999 after being stabbed ‘was put on hold’ due to volume of calls

Phillip Daniels is accused of murdering Paul Millea in Liverpool

After telling the emergency services operator he had been stabbed, Paul Millea was told to 'hold the line' (Getty)

A man who rang 999 and said he had been stabbed died after he was put on hold because of a high volume of calls.

Emergency services crews arrived 40 minutes after 36-year-old Paul Millea made the phone call on the evening of Saturday 17 June this year, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Phillip Daniels, 26, is accused of murdering Millea and has admitted stabbing him. Prosecutors say Daniels used a knife in the attack because he thought Millea was having an affair with his pregnant girlfriend.

But Daniels said he used a pair of scissors and was acting in self-defence.

The court heard Millea called 999 at 11.10pm and said: “I’ve been stabbed in the chest” and “babe, I’m going to die”, Nigel Power QC said as the trial began.

Speaking to a female operator Millea could be heard saying “I’ve been stabbed in the chest”, “babe, I’m going to die”, and added: “He stabbed me for nothing.”

He then repeatedly said: “I’m going to die”, the Liverpool Echo reports.

Mr Power told the court that on the recording the operator can then be heard saying: “Hold the line,” to which Millea said: “He stabbed me like a nutter. I’m dying.”

“We only hear sadly a recorded voice saying that the call was in a queue because there were a high number of calls,” Mr Power said.

“Mr Millea obviously knew that he was dying because he said ‘I’m dying, I’m going to die, can’t I stay here? I’m dying’.”

Paramedics arrived at the scene outside Daniels’ girlfriend Kayleigh Maylor’s house, where a neighbour was assisting Millea.

He was taken to hospital where he died from his wounds just before 1.30am.

The blade had cut through his right lung and cut a major vein into the heart.

Mr Power said after the incident Daniels had arrived at his mother’s house in Stockbridge Village and he was “visibly distressed”.

He said: “He was shaking, crying and repeatedly saying that he was sorry.

“He said that he thought Kayleigh was having an affair with someone and that when that man knocked on the door he stabbed him.

“He asked her to wash his clothes, but his mother wisely declined.”

Daniels’ sister Kimberley arrived at their mother’s address the following morning and allegedly took away her brother’s clothes and took his “very distinctive hair” to be shaved off.

Mr Power asked why Daniels did this other than “not wanting to be apprehended for murder”.

His sister was subsequently arrested and refused to tell police where Daniels was.

She has now pleaded guilty to “the offence of assisting an offender, providing sanctuary for her brother and helping him dispose of evidence,” the lawyer said.

While his mother was providing a statement to the police, Daniels reportedly rang her, and she told him to return to the house, whereupon he was arrested.

His sister will tell the court Daniels rang her asking for a lift and saying “I think I’ve killed somebody”, and told her he had stabbed a man he thought was having an affair with his girlfriend.

She will also say Daniels had told her he had wiped a knife used in the stabbing, and had hidden it “a few streets away”, Mr Power told the court.

Daniels denies murder and manslaughter and no weapon has yet been found.