A shopkeeper told an inquest that he fought off and killed an armed robber who came at him like a “mad dog” trying to steal the day's taking. Tony Singh, 34, was ambushed by Liam Kilroe, 25, a wanted criminal, in February outside his Lifestyle Express store in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, as he tried to get into his car after work.

The robber threw a brick through the shopkeeper's car window before shouting that he was armed with a knife and was going to stab him. Instead of handing over the £2,000 takings, Mr Singh fought back. Mr Singh was slashed across the face and stabbed in the back during the ensuing struggle. They fought for the blade, exchanging blows and head-butts on the ground.

By the time police arrived Mr Singh had subdued Kilroe, who was either dead or dying. Officers arrested Mr Singh on suspicion of murder and, although he was subsequently released on police bail, he feared that he could face a murder charge for some days before the Crown Prosecution Service declared that he had acted in self-defence.

Mr Singh, a popular figure in the community, was renowned for working long hours trying to build up his grocery and off-licence business. By contrast Kilroe had a long record for violent crime and was wanted by police at the time for evading trial for two similar armed raids on shops.

Mr Singh told the coroner at the hearing in Preston of the moment when his car window was smashed and Kilroe threw himself through the shattered window with a knife screaming: “Give me your f****** money.” He said: “When I saw the knife, I jumped out. I did not get a chance to run away. He was on me like a dog.”

At one point Kilroe headbutted the shopkeeper and yelled a threat that he would kill him. Mr Singh said: “I grabbed his hand in case he stabbed me somehow. I fell and he got on top of me and bit me. He had headbutted me and I fell back on the floor and he had the knife in his hand. He kept shouting ‘give me the money'.

“He gave me a mighty blow. I fell and took him down with me. He was on the floor and I was on the floor and I managed to get on top. He tried to get me off, I gave him a couple of blows and I was trying to keep him on the floor.”

Mr Singh said that Kilroe tried to stab him “like a mad dog”. However, by the time police arrived Mr Singh had control of the knife, which he was immediately ordered to drop. I was trying to restrain him but he was struggling and trying to throw me off,” he said. “I was panicking.” He added: “At the hospital they told me that if the cut to my head had been any deeper I would have been dead. I was also stabbed in the back. It was like he was on something.”

Earlier the inquest was told that when Mr Singh had Kilroe pinned to the ground, he punched him repeatedly in the face. It appeared to one witness, Deborah Barker, that the shopkeeper had “lost it”.

Mrs Barker said: “The children came upstairs and said, ‘there's a fight outside and Tony's involved' and so I came straight downstairs and by the time I was out the door Tony was on top of the other man. I was telling Tony to get off him because he was going to hurt him and Tony was screaming ‘The f****** b****** has tried to rob me!'. He said he had stabbed him or something.

“They were covered in blood, and he was going hysterical.”

Dr Alison Armour, a consultant pathologist at Lancashire Teaching Hospital, concluded that Kilroe died as a result of a single stab wound inflicted with moderate force using a knife with an 8cm blade.

She said: “Based on the fact that there was no bone injury this was a stab wound of moderate force. You cannot infer how the knife was held, the position of the hilt or any other matter.”

Dr James Adeley, Lancashire coroner, is due to deliver a verdict today.

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