'I saw the knife go into his chest and the blood. I'll never forget his face'

A witness told the Old Bailey yesterday how Kenneth Noye nodded to him "as if to say, 'That sorted him out'," seconds after plunging a knife into the chest of Stephen Cameron.

Alan Decabral was driving his Rolls-Royce when he saw the "road rage" confrontation between Mr Cameron and Mr Noye and its lethal consequence. Afterwards, he chased Mr Noye, who allegedly fled the scene in his Land Rover Discovery, leaving Mr Cameron, 21, who was unarmed, fatally wounded and his terrified fiancée, Danielle Cable, screaming and crying for help.

The jury at court number two heard the tape of Mr Decabral's 999 call from his mobile telephone as he pursued Mr Noye in his car.

He could be heard telling the emergency services operator: "I saw the knife go into his chest, I saw the blood. I'll never forget his face."

Earlier, giving evidence in the packed court, Mr Decabral described how he saw Mr Noye's knife "glinting" in the sun after he produced it from a trouser pocket. "I looked and I thought to myself, 'God, what's going on' then I saw a flash because it was a sunny day. I realised it was a knife and I could see the sun glinting off the blade."

He saw Mr Cameron stabbed and watched him fall against the front of the van he was travelling in, asking Ms Cable to get the number of Mr Noye's car. Then Mr Noye passed Mr Decabral, sitting in the Rolls-Royce. "He turned so he was facing me and I could see him shutting the knife. When he did that there was an expression on his face. As he walked past my car he nodded to me as if t' say, 'That's sorted him out, you have got yours mate,' that sort of thing," he said. "I thought I was dreaming. I had never seen anyone stabbed before, it all happened so quickly."

Mr Decabral said he was driving his Rolls Royce on the A20 slip road approaching the M25 interchange at Swanley, Kent, in May 1996 when he saw two men fighting by their parked cars. "The older man was trying to hit the younger man, who was much taller and had longer arms.

"I then saw the older man stab him with the knife he got from the right hand pocket in his trousers. I saw him put his hand in his trousers ... and I saw him tug at something and then hide his hand behind his back. The knife had opened like a flick knife but it could already have been opened."

Mr Decabral told the jury that Mr Noye drove off in his car just after the stabbing "PDQ, pretty damn quick. I dialled 999, I had my phone balanced on my shoulder which allowed me to drive but it fell off. I tried to get the registration number of the car and I was reading it out to the operator but the phone line was breaking up."

Mr Decabral told the court that he wrote the registration number on a cigarette packet which unfortunately went missing. However, he had managed to give a partial number to the emergency operator.

In the tape of his 999 call, Mr Decabral gave the number as "L964 something. I didn't catch the rest." The number of the Discovery was, in fact, L794 JTF, the court was told. Mr Decabral could be heard telling the operator: "I have seen a stabbing. I saw a guy stab another guy on the top of the stomach near the diaphragm," then he gave a detailed description of the suspect.

Under cross-examination by Stephen Batten QC, Mr Decabral was asked: "Do you use recreational drugs?" He responded: "Yes". He was then asked: "Did you take them on that day?" He responded" "No, Sunday is a church day."

Earlier, Amanda Whelan, a lecturer travelling with her partner, Michael Kelly, told the jury she saw a "silver flash" as Mr Noye fought Mr Cameron. "One of our children said there were two men fighting and first of all we heard a woman screaming hysterically.

"She was jumping around and leaping about in the road, running backwards and forwards screaming, 'Get him off, get him off', and there was a younger man fighting with an older man.

"The older man was punching, they were making contact with each other's bodies and the younger man, who was bigger, was kicking at him, at his legs. At that point I decided to get out of the car and intervene.

"However, at that point the older man broke away. He walked quickly towards the Land Rover, got in and drove off. It was obvious the thing was over, the lights changed and we proceeded. I never saw that he [Mr Cameron] was injured, we would never have driven off if that was the case."

Mr Noye, of Sevenoaks, Kent, has pleaded not guilty to murder but, the court has been told, he has admitted stabbing Mr Cameron through his heart and liver. He claims self defence. The trial continues.