A man accused of murder told police he “would never take a human life”, a court has heard.

St Albans Crown Court today heard a police interview with Stephen Lowe recorded on Monday, July 28, 2008 - the day he handed himself into Watford police station and was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Andrew Boag.

Mr Boag, 35, died following an incident in Garsmouth Way, Watford, on Friday, July 25. Lowe, who is known as Frosty, denies murder.

Listening to the interview, the jury heard Lowe explain that until three months before Mr Boag's death, the pair “saw eye to eye”.

The jury heard Lowe had encouraged Tereasina Leighton to press charges against Mr Boag after he assaulted her in 2007.

“He said the reason he got to jail was me and Terri,” Lowe told police officers. “He was ringing me up saying he would shoot me and calling me 'Grass'. He had been in the local pub telling people he would stab me. We could go on and on and on.

“He was the sort of person who tells you something, you don't take a pinch of salt, you take it as fact.”

The court heard that on July 25, Lowe had returned to Watford from Essex, where he was working at a funfair, to see his girlfriend Ms Leighton and get his washing done.

When there was no answer at Ms Leighton's flat, Lowe then travelled in a white transit van to Garsmouth Way, to give his son a toy, when he saw a blue Mercedes taxi, the court heard.

While he was on his mobile phone, Lowe told the interviewing police officer a man he knew as Andrew Boag shouted: “Frosty, you f****** *****”.

The court heard Lowe saw Mr Boag, who he had previously called a “Nokia gangster”, lean into the taxi's passenger door and come back out with his right hand behind his back.

A confrontation then took place, the court heard, when Mr Boag “squared up” to Lowe. The defendant told police he took Mr Boag's right elbow in his left hand, fearing he could be stabbed, before he was put into a headlock underneath Mr Boag's left arm. The struggling men then fell into onto the passenger seat, Lowe on top of Mr Boag, the recorded voice of Lowe said.

He said: “I defended myself and grabbed his elbow when his hand was coming down. That's when I punched the guy in the side and pushed him back into the car. We ended up with him sitting down on the seat, me being on top of him.

“This is when I heard a girl tell the taxi driver: 'Give it to him or pass it to him.'”

Lowe then told police he put a knuckle-duster onto his right hand, gave Mr Boag a “body shot” and said the pair ended up between the front seats, with Mr Boag's head on the back seat. Lowe then punched him three times to the face and jaw, the court heard.

With Mr Boag “out cold”, Lowe said he backed out of the car, walked back to the transit van and was driven away by a friend.

Before he left the scene, however, Lowe said he told a woman at the scene: “You can tell him that was a boyslap. If he f***s with me again he will get a manslap.”

The court then heard Lowe tell police he “binned” the knuckle-duster by throwing it out of the window as he drove past the Dome roundabout, near the Asda supermarket in St Albans Road, Watford.

The interview concluded as Lowe told police: “I would never take a human life, especially someone that I knew.”

The jury also heard evidence today from Stacey Brennan, the mother of Lowe's son who was in a relationship with Mr Boag at the time of his death.

In court, she described the pair as “acquaintances rather than friends”, but said she didn't know of any particular problems between them.

Ms Brennan told the court: “He (Mr Boag) didn't speak much about Frosty, just that when he did see him he knew it wasn't going to be nice.

“When it came to Frosty he respected the fact he was the father of my child and didn't discuss it.”

Prosecutor Anne Evans read a text message Lowe sent to Ms Brennan, about Mr Boag, on June 21, 2008.

It said: “He's not a friend or an enemy. He's just bad news and that's bad for Kai. I will kill for my kids, please remember that from the heart.”

Ms Brennan told the court she hadn't seen Mr Boag for around two weeks before his death, as he was on the“missing list”. He had been visiting another woman who thought she might be pregnant, she said.

The jury heard the couple didn't see each other until Thursday, July 24, the day before his death, when he visited her flat.

He stayed there until the following day, when he went to visit his children before telling Ms Brennan he was going to the pub at around 7.30pm.

She told the court he then invited her for a drink and she was to arrange for a babysitter.

Asked by Ms Evans to describe Mr Boag's mood, Ms Brennan said: “He was in a happy mood. There was nothing troubling him. Everything was good.”

Ms Brennan told the court that just after 9pm, she had arrived at the babysitter's with her son when she intentionally missed a call from Lowe.

Soon afterwards, the jury heard she spoke to Mr Boag who told her to meet him in a taxi at the “Twin Towers” - a name he used to refer to the two high rise blocks of flats, Abbey View and Munden View, in Garsmouth Way.

As she walked past her home, Ms Brennan heard “shouting” and recognised Lowe's voice, the court heard. She then walked to a nearby shop before going to the “Twin Towers”, where she saw Mr Boag's body inside a taxi, she told the court.

Around 20 minutes later, the court heard that Ms Brennan received a telephone call from Lowe while she was still at the scene.

She said: “He said to kiss our boy goodbye and that he loves him and that he would see him in ten years. I said: 'What have you done Frost?' He said: 'Nothing more than a slap.'”

Under cross-examination from Ann Cotcher, QC, representing Lowe, Ms Brennan said Lowe loved his son “without a doubt”, and that Mr Boag was “irritated” by the texts he would regularly send to see how she and his son were.

Ms Cotcher also asked Ms Brennan about Mr Boag's “reputation” of being violent and carrying a knife.

The witness said: “He said to me it's taken him years to get the reputation he has got. His reputation was built up over an amount of years, it's not something you earn in a day.

“He had said he couldn't just stop carrying a knife because of fear someone would come and do it to him (cause him harm). He said the day he didn't carry a knife would be the day something would happen to him.”

But Ms Brennan said she had only seen Mr Boag with a knife once.

She told the court: “I was not at all frightened by him. If I was I wouldn't have put me or my son in that situation.”

Stephen Lowe, of Breakspeare Close, Watford, has pleaded not guilty to murder. He has also pleaded not guilty to an alternative count of manslaughter.

The trial continues.