A MAN who stabbed a Chorley schoolgirl after drinking half a bottle of whisky said people did ‘silly things’ after too much alcohol, a court heard.

Kristofer Beddar, 21, allegedly made the remark to a prison guard after his arrest over the frenzied stabbing of 14-year-old Jessica Knight in a park in January.

Beddar, a French national who was living with his mother in Adlington, Chorley, at the time of the attack, gave evidence in his defence for the first time on Thursday.

Speaking in French, his words were relayed to the jury through an interpreter at Preston Crown Court.

”Are you blaming alcohol for what you did to Jessica Knight?” William Waldron QC, prosecuting, asked Beddar.

”Yes, you can say that,” he replied.

Mr Waldron continued: “Is stabbing Jessica Knight 20 times a ‘silly thing’?”

”It is not silly. It is dangerous,” the defendant said.

Beddar, of Daisy Hill Drive, Adlington, Chorley, admits wounding with intent on January 21, but denies attempted murder. He claims he did not intend to kill her and says he cannot recall the attack.

Jessica, now 15, had finished school for the day and was walking through the park listening to her iPod on her way to meet a friend when she was stabbed in the neck, stomach, chest and back.

Now aged 15, she has been left with “long-term physical and psychological problems”, the court heard.

The trial has previously heard that the defendant confessed to his mother, Marion Beddar. She told Preston Crown Court that after watching a television news report about the stabbing the evening after the attack, her son called her to his bedroom and said he thought he had committed the crime.

”He said ‘Mum, I think it must have been me’,” Mrs Beddar said.

Proceeding.