A man told his girlfriend she would "you'll end up on a murder charge" before she stabbed him to death, a trial has heard.
Gary Morgan delivered the stark warning to his partner Emma Walsh after a previous occasion on which she "tried to stab him", telling her in another message "next time you might not be as lucky and hit an artery". On the evening of April 10 this year, she fatally knifed him in the heart at her home on Lavan Close in Everton after returning from a visit to the pub.
The 31-year-old is now standing trial at Liverpool Crown Court charged with the tradesman's murder. This afternoon, Wednesday, the jury was read a series of texts which were sent between the couple before Mr Morgan's death at the age of 36.
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These referenced a number of alleged incidents between the two, including altercations in which Walsh is said to have spat at him, punched him, left him with black eyes, attacked him with a rake and "threatened to send Crocky heads to his mum's house". After one domestic, he said: "I love you but I'm fighting a losing battle and it's never gonna change, because if I say something you just kick off."
Mr Morgan, from Prescot, told Walsh in May last year "once you start throwing punches you can't stop". He added: "I've honestly felt like going somewhere and ending it, I haven't felt this depressed in ages."
On June 7 2021, the deceased said in a message: "Never want to see you again you nasty piece of s***. You went too far yesterday.
"My face is split open, got bite marks on my chest and shattered my elbow. I'm no f***ing punchbag."
Walsh told Mr Morgan she was "gonna end it all", adding: "I love you and no matter what I always will do. Just please remember me for the good times."
He responded: "You hit me across the head with a f***ing rake. If you'd had a knife, you would have stabbed me.
"You're a f***ing bully and I want you out of my life. I'm not staying around to get killed by you.
"You want to see the state of my face. Don't text me any more, this is it.
"I can't stay with you, I'll end up seriously injured. There's not a chance I'm coming back for more, all you do is give me s*** and t*** me.
"Sorry is not doing it any more. Sick of having black eyes off you.
"I can't stay with you, it's too far now. I'm black and blue all the time.
"If it was the other way round I'd be slammed for it. I'll end up dead soon, can't do it.
"I wanna be on my own for a bit. You've broken me down."
Ten days later on June 17, Mr Morgan messaged Walsh saying: "You swore you'll never do it again, and less than a week later you're doing it again. I told you, I wont have you punching me and I meant it Emma."
Walsh pleaded with Mr Morgan to stay with her, telling him she loved him and had "lost too much already". He responded: "Tried too many times with no change."
In another message, the dad said: "I'm letting everything go to escape my domestic abuser. That's what you are.
"You pick s*** up and start swinging, asking questions later. I've never suffered from so much anxiety since I've been with you.
"I love you, always will, you just scare the s*** out of me. I never lay a finger on anyone and you're just bringing the worst out, you won't ever change.
"It's domestic violence, no matter what way you look at it. I never ever thought it would happen to me, but here we are.
"You'll end up killing me. Can't even laugh in front of you without you kicking off.
"You was threatening to send Crocky heads to my mum's house Emma. You were trying to stab me for f***s sake.
"You just can't go on like that. You'll end up on a murder charge."
Mr Morgan said in one text that Walsh had "flipped out about him having a shower" and "stopped him from having one". He added: "You're controlling me and not giving a f*** about how I feel.
"My life's going down the pan. You're meant to love me, and I'm here feeling like a d***head."
Mr Morgan sent a message to Walsh's cousin saying "Emma's just stabbed me in the neck", before telling the defendant: "Picking a knife up is bad, never mind sticking it in my neck. You could have killed me."
"You just flip and start accusing me and threatening me with Crocky rats. I can't even eat properly because my jaw's killing."
Walsh told him that she was "off the ale for a bit", adding: "It will not happen ever again, at all. I pinkie promise."
Mr Morgan replied: "You can't just stab me in the neck and just forget about it. I can't get my head round why you started trying to stab me.
"I still can't believe you've done it to be honest. You ended it when you started picking up knives.
"This time you've gone too far. Next time you might not be as lucky and hit an artery.
"Why do you do it? You wasn't a***d as long as you didn't get done."
Walsh accused Mr Morgan of "chasing her with a spade" in one message, although he stated he was actually "chasing the lads you was with". He also said she had "threatened to burn his mum's house" and accused her of "getting off your cake with all lads", "s***ging that pie face" and "getting banged by lads from the Sheil".
Another message read: "Not getting bullied by you any more and hope you get bullied in jail. Don't want a flat with you so you can lock me in there and try and stab me, I'm getting you done for this and biting my arm.
"You punched my face in for f*** all. You smashed a glass then came at me with it."
Walsh said she would go on an anger management course, adding: "I wouldn't do nothing to hurt you, you know I wouldn't. I don't want this to be it you know - but if you do I understand, truly.
"I love you so much. I want to spend the rest of my life with you Gary."
Mr Morgan said she had "punched him four times in the nose" and it was "killing". He messaged her saying: "You punch my head every two minutes.
"Every time we go in the flat there's no-one to stop the murder, and to be honest I'm scared of what you'll do. It's the drink and the lemo."
Walsh said she was "off it now", but Mr Morgan replied: "I can't keep getting filled in by you. I'm not a punchbag."
More members of his family gave evidence from the witness box during the fourth day of the trial today. Jurors heard that he had FaceTimed his brother, aunt and niece as he walked home from the Belmont pub - where he and Walsh had been watching a Liverpool FC game on the television - less than two hours before his death.
Liam Morgan, the youngest of the six brothers, said of his two-minute call to his sibling at around 10.15pm: "They were on their way home and all I could see was a bus stop. They both looked drunk.
"I could just tell. Emma was loud in the background, she was singing."
The witness said there did not appear to be any issues between Gary and Walsh at that stage. It was the last time he spoke to his brother.
With Liam at the time was his aunt Christine Hindley and her granddaughter - a youth who cannot be named for legal reasons. The trio had been at the bingo together, with a statement read to the court on Ms Hindley's behalf adding: "I remember him saying he was drunk
"It was dark and I could only see his face, he said he was walking home from the pub. He seemed ok, he was smiling - the whole conversation was less than a minute."
Ms Hindley said that Gary had "disclosed that Emma had been abusive to him", including being hit by a rake. Her statement added: "I would give him advice not to go back but he would, because he loved her - I cannot warn him now."
A statement from her granddaughter said: "I did notice a change in Gary, he went from being chatty and bubbly to timid and quiet. I was shocked to find out Emma was hitting Gary."
The teen spoke of one occasion when Mr Morgan was at her grandma's house after he had been "hit with a rake or shovel". She said: "He was crying, he told me Emma had hit him with something and punched him.
"This was the only time I saw Gary cry. He said he wasn't going back to her, but he did."
Another of Gary's brothers, Kevin, said he began to notice a change in him a "couple of months" into his relationship with Walsh. He said on the stand: "It started out small at first, little bruises here and there.
"I just thought it was wear and tear. It slowly progressed to black eyes.
"He would come up with a number of excuses, like the remote hit him in the face. He said he got into a fight with a neighbour, he was giving different people different accounts.
"He said it was just becoming too much. He said he wasn't happy with the way it was going, he couldn't see a happy outcome.
"It was mainly the violence. But on top of the violence there was some controlling going on."
Kevin said arguments would erupt between the pair over "silly things", such as if Gary had spoken to a barmaid. He recalled seeing bite marks on his brother's legs, arms, chest and back - telling the court: "He went from being a nice, bubbly, happy person to being unpleased."
Kevin remembered an occasion on which Walsh is said to have stabbed him in the cheek with a butter knife, saying: "He said she was reaching for something sharper, but Gary moved everything so she used the butter knife. I knew he would go back because he just loved her.
"I said to him, 'it's not good for you this. If it carries on you will end up hitting her back or you will end up dead'.
"He just laughed at me, he said 'I'm taller than her, I'm bigger than her. She won't do nothing to me."
Peter Huddott, Gary's cousin and workmate, then gave evidence. He said: "He turned up with black eyes and stuff, bites.
"He danced around it at first, saying he'd banged his head. We sort of realised it was his Mrs doing it.
"We would turn up to jobs and the customer would see he had a black eye, he'd say he'd banged it on the door or done it in work or something. He started opening up to me, telling me what was going on.
"She was being abusive, aggressive, controlling. He had bite marks on his chest, his belly, his arm.
"He had a wound to his face, off a butter knife. He had a scar on his face.
"He told me what happened, and that she'd done it to him. He said she was going for his neck and he stepped back or forward, and she ended up getting his face."
Of the rake incident, Mr Huddott said: "They had an argument, she picked up a rake and attacked him with it in the face. I believe that she struck him with a metal level as well."
Mr Haddott and Mr Morgan's brothers said they were not aware that Gary had been arrested on suspicion of assaulting Walsh in February this year. Walsh denies one count of murder, and the trial continues.
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