THE armed police officer who was first on the scene of an alleged murder in Trinant described finding a man lying on the floor in a pool of blood with another man kneeling beside him.

PC Matthew Edmunds, of Gwent Police, gave evidence in Paul Mapps' trial at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday.

Mapps, 26, denies murdering his friend Ian Davies at his home in Marshfield Road, Trinant on January 11 this year.

PC Edmunds told the jury he and another officer were first on the scene. "I had a quick look through the window I believe was into the living room," he said. "I could see a male lying on the floor wearing a cream coloured T-shirt and another male kneeling next to him."

The man on the floor had what appeared to be a "puncture wound" to his stomach, PC Edmunds said, so he and a colleague gave him first aid.

He said he could not get any information out of the first man, or a woman also present, about who they were or what had happened.

"There was blood on the floor next to the male," PC Edmunds said.

He said at first blood did not appear to be seeping from the wound.

"At that time he [Mr Davies] was conscious. He had symptoms of somebody being drunk. His speech was slurred and he wasn't making any sense at all but he was conscious."

But in the 10 to 15 minutes before paramedics arrived, Mr Davies' condition deteriorated, PC Edmunds said.

Blood began to seep through the dressing the officers applied, he said.

They put pressure on the wound and applied a 'quick clot' solution.

By the time the ambulance arrived, Mr Davies was critical.

The jury heard a statement from Robert Huish, an emergency medical technician with the Welsh Ambulance Service. He said he could not detect signs of life from Mr Davies, and that blood was pumping from his wound as he was given resuscitation.

They put Mr Davies in a wheelchair and took him to the Royal Gwent Hospital.

Shortly after 9.30pm that evening, 27-year-old Mr Davies was pronounced dead at the Royal Gwent Hospital as a result of injuries caused by a single stab wound to his abdomen, the court heard earlier in the trial.

Proceeding.