Technically Incorrect

Thursday and Friday saw the last two days of evidence given by David Heiss, the German man accused of murdering fellow Advance Wars gamer Matthew Pyke in Nottingham, England.

In those last two days of evidence, Heiss was confronted with accusations that Pyke had cowered as his assailant stabbed him 86 times.

Heiss denied suggestions by the prosecution that he had chased Pyke down a corridor.

However, when asked by the prosecutor why he had run after Pyke, Heiss replied: "We had crossed the line that nobody should cross and I was so afraid he would call the police and tell them I had assaulted him."

Nottingham, where the jury has retired to consider its verdict in the case.

(Credit: CC Air Babble/Flickr)

Heiss also claimed that after Pyke's death, he had been very distressed on his flight home to Germany.

He said: "While I was on the plane, I had a really hard time not to burst into tears. I would have turned to the person on my left and said, 'You might not believe me. I have just done something incredibly terrible.'"

Heiss admitted Friday that he had changed his clothes and washed his hands after Pyke's death. He described himself as "very panicky."

To which the prosecutor, Shaun Smith, asked: "So panicky you are able to take a pair of Matthew's shoes?"

Heiss' reply: "Well, they were lying on the floor in the living room."

The prosecutor, summing up the case, said: "It was an attack born out of obsession and hatred in equal measure. Obsession for Joanna Witton, who was Matthew's girlfriend, and hatred for Matthew, because Matthew was Joanna Witton's boyfriend and because of things that happened over the Internet."

Whitton and Pyke had blocked Heiss from the online forum Warcentral.com.

The prosecutor spoke to the jurors about the last minutes of Pyke's life: "You know he tried to crawl away. You know that with his dying breath he tried to write David Heiss' name on the computer tower. You know all that, but to imagine what it was like is impossible."

Both prosecution and defense have made their closing arguments and the jury is now considering the evidence.

David Heiss, the alleged killer of online war gamer Matthew Pyke, told a court Wednesday that he was frustrated at being blocked from Warcentral.com, the Advance Wars online forum run by victim Matthew Pyke and his girlfriend Joanna Witton.

Heiss is accused of flying from his home in Germany to Nottingham in the U.K. and murdering Pyke, who died from 86 stab wounds.

The court heard Tuesday that Pyke had tried to write the killer's name on his computer with his own blood.

The city of Nottingham, where the alleged murder took place.

(Credit: CC SubZeroConsciousness/Flickr)

Heiss was allegedly obsessed with Witton. In a conversation with another member of Warcentral.com, Heiss allegedly said that he hated having to blackmail her, but that seemed like the only way he could talk to her.

Questioned by the prosecution as to what he was blackmailing her with, Heiss replied: "At some point I said if they didn't try to resolve this, then I would come back."

The prosecutor pressed Heiss as to whether he meant he would come back to Nottingham if he wasn't unblocked. "Unfortunately, yes," said Heiss.

He added: "At some point I simply couldn't think of anything else to persuade them to talk to me other than to blackmail them."

The jury was also told that Witton had asked Heiss on his of his previous surprise visits to get over her and seek counseling.

The case continues.

Matthew Pyke and his girlfriend, Joanna Witton, of Nottingham, U.K., met David Heiss, from Limburg, Germany, on their Advance Wars online gaming forum.

Heiss now stands accused of murdering Pyke, a computer science student at Nottingham Trent University, after making several surprise trips from Germany to visit Pyke and his girlfriend and allegedly becoming obsessed with Witton.

Jurors were presented on Tuesday with images of Pyke's computer, on the side of which he was said to have written the first three letters of Heiss' name in his own blood as he lay dying from 86 stab wounds to his body.

Witton had earlier given evidence from behind a curtain and said that her and Pyke's social life had largely revolved around their love of gaming.

She said that Heiss had become increasingly obsessed with her over a six-month period, despite never having seen her in person. He made two surprise visits to their Nottingham home and refused to stay in a hotel.

Nottingham Trent University, where Mr. Pyke was a computer science student.

(Credit: CC Nickstone333/Flickr)

"I started blanking him as if to say leave me alone. I was afraid he was going to turn up again and I didn't know what he was capable of," she told the court.

She added: "I was willing to smash my laptop up if it meant that I would never speak to him (Heiss) again. I was ready to run away."

The jury also heard that during a conversation with another gamer, Heiss had said he wanted to smash Pyke's head against a wall.

On September 19, 2008, the day after celebrating the couple's third anniversary, Witton went to work, and, after failing to make contact with Pyke, returned home to find him dead.

The 21-year-old Heiss gave evidence in his defense Tuesday. He said he hadn't meant to kill Pyke. He had simply flown to England to confront him and Witton after they had used the online forum to allegedly make disparaging remarks about him. The couple had blocked him from their site and from IM.

"I thought that once he (Pyke) stepped outside I would give him a beating. It wasn't my intention to put him in hospital, it wasn't my intention to break any bones," Heiss told the court.

He continued: "At some point we started to punch each other. He was on his back and I was sitting on him. The next thing I felt was something inside my knee. I didn't really feel any pain and I looked down and saw it was the knife. I was terrified."

The knife allegedly belonged to Heiss and had been in his belt.

"I was trying not to let him attack me. I grabbed his arm and shook it and smashed it against the wall. I was so afraid that he would stab me again but then I stabbed at him," testified Heiss.

The court also heard that police had allegedly found a suicide note, written in such a way as to appear they were the words of Pyke, in Heiss's suitcase. Police gave evidence that, in an interview with them, he said he had written the note to "cheer himself up".

Heiss denies murdering Pyke.