Jurors must decide whether a Moroccan man who fatally stabbed a pensioner in the street intended to kill or cause really serious harm, a judge said.

Ahmed Alid, 45, is charged with murdering Terence Carney, 70, in Hartlepool town centre, minutes after repeatedly knifing his sleeping housemate Javed Nouri, 31, in his bed.

He has told Teesside Crown Court “he lost his mind” before he stabbed the pensioner, and indicated he was “scared” of Mr Nouri during the struggle in his housemate’s room.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told jurors there was no defence of diminished responsibility for Mr Alid, and he could not claim self-defence in respect of stabbing Mr Nouri.

She said: “The only defence is that the defendant did not intend to kill Javed Nouri and he did not intend to kill or cause really serious harm to Terence Carney.

“The only issue for you to determine is what harm he intended, if any, and you must focus on that issue.”

The prosecution has told Teesside Crown Court that Alid, who was born in Morocco and who moved around Europe for years, was seeking “revenge” for the Israel-Palestine conflict.

He admits stabbing both men in the early hours of October 15, eight days after Hamas launched their attacks on Israel, but denies murder and attempted murder.

In his closing speech to the jury, Jonathan Sandiford KC, prosecuting, reminded the jury of CCTV footage which he said showed Alid did not carry out a “frenzied attack”.

Instead, Mr Sandiford said, Alid kept moving to keep himself in front of Mr Carney, so he could keep stabbing him in the body.

Mr Sandiford asked: “Why do you think that is, other than he was trying to do the maximum damage, to kill him, as indeed he did?”

John Elvidge KC, defending, asked the jury to clear Alid of attempted murder and to convict him of the alternative charge of wounding Mr Nouri, and clear him of murdering Mr Carney in favour of the alternative charge of manslaughter.

The case was adjourned until Thursday when the judge will sum up the case before sending the jury out to consider their verdicts.