Stab victim's car `was alone'

A young couple told a court yesterday how they saw Lee Harvey's white Ford Escort travelling alone along a country lane just before his fiancee Tracie Andrews allegedly killed him. They were travelling home from a Sunday night drink with friends on 1 December last year when they saw Mr Harvey's Escort RS Turbo 2000, they told Birmingham Crown Court.

Ms Andrews denies murdering her 25-year-old boyfriend, alleging he was the victim of a road rage-style attack. She says he was stabbed to death in a frenzied assault by the passenger of a mystery dark blue Ford Sierra which chased them along country lanes near her home.

Simon Baker and his girlfriend, Elaine Carruthers, both accountants, told the jury that there was definitely no other vehicle following Mr Harvey's car as it travelled past them.

Mr Baker, who told the court that he remembered the dead man's car because of its sporty alloy wheels and rear spoiler, said that as he travelled home at about 10.35pm he noticed the Escort as he approached a T-junction.

When he pulled out of the junction, he saw the Escort was reversing behind him as though it had missed the junction.

Mr Baker denied any suggestion that there was another car in the vicinity, following the white Escort. He said: "I say that it is completely and utterly untrue. I definitely would have noticed another car at the junction."

The trial was adjourned.