A YOUNG man accused of murdering his girlfriend claimed on Friday that as he stabbed her repeatedly, she told him: 'I love you.'

Testifying at his trial, Pathip Selvan Sugumaran, 23, told the High Court that those were her last words, as she died moments later.

On Friday, the court heard for the first time an account of what happened in the moments before the teenager died.

Miss Jeevitha Panippan, 18, suffered 15 external injuries, three of them fatal stab wounds to her neck, shoulder and chest. The stab wound to the chest went so deep that it cut through her stomach and into her ribs.

Under cross-examination by his lawyer Subhas Anandan in the High Court, Pathip could hardly keep still. He swivelled in his chair and his eyes darted around the courtroom.

Pathip said he was infuriated after catching Miss Jeevitha with another man on July 7 last year.

sujint@sph.com.sg

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.