FUGITIVE Michael Donnelly fled “first to Spain and then to Thailand” after the death of Grant Byrom, a court heard.

Mr Paxton told how the first police officer to arrive on the scene of the stabbing noticed an “old-style”, dark Mercedes drive off down Forest Road.

“This was the defendant doing a runner,” said Mr Paxton.

“He was leaving his own party, his own home and, in time, his own country.”

Detectives entered Donnelly’s address at 10.45pm on the evening of the murder, finding evidence the defendant had “left in a hurry”.

Donnelly avoided arrest for 20 years.

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The court heard on June 10, 2019, Donnelly walked into Colchester Police Station, telling an officer to “put his name into the police system”.

He was arrested and interviewed.

Mr Paxton said Donnelly told the police: “Where I was living I can’t afford to get sick and I am running out of money, it is as simple as that really.”

Donnelly told the police he had broken his foot in 2018 and was running out of cash.

Mr Paxton said: “There was no suggestion in his first reply he had returned to clear his name of something he had been falsely accused of.

“Rather, he was suggesting he came back because he was broke.”

Donnelly went on to say fled the country because he was being falsely accused.