A GERMAN man who denies the murder of a Nottingham student told a court of his frustration after he was blocked from an internet forum supervised by the alleged victim.

David Heiss, 21, told Nottingham Crown Court this morning how he had been blocked by some members of Warcentral.com, a war games website run by Matthew Pyke and his girlfriend Joanna Witton.

Heiss said he was quite upset that Miss Witton, who he was allegedly obsessed with, had blocked him and did not think it was justified.

In a conversation Heiss had with another forum user he allegedly said he hated to blackmail her [Miss Witton] but that was the only way he had to talk to her.

Shaun Smith QC, prosecuting, asked Heiss what was he blackmailing Miss Witton with.

Heiss, from Limburg, near Frankfurt, told the court: "At some point I said if they didn't try to resolve this, then I would come back."

Mr Smith asked Heiss "You were going to blackmail her [Miss Witton] with coming back to Nottingham if you didn't resolve it?"

Heiss, speaking to the court in English, said: "Unfortunately, yes."

Mr Smith asked Heiss why they [Miss Witton and Mr Pyke] would be so scared of Heiss coming back to Nottingham if they did not unblock him on the forum.

Heiss said: "I'm not saying they would have been scared. I had given a promise not to see Jo again.

"Unfortunately I had to go that far because they didn't want to talk to me.

"At some point they were not going to listen to me anymore and they blocked me.

"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 has heard that Miss Witton had asked Heiss on one of his surprise visits to Nottingham last year to get counselling and to get over her.

The prosecution allege that Heiss returned to Mr Pyke's flat in North Sherwood Street in September last year and stabbed Mr Pyke to death.

The court has heard that he suffered 86 stab wounds.

Heiss denies the murder of Mr Pyke.

Proceeding.