A JURY is expected to deliver a verdict today, Tuesday, on murder charges levelled against a TV engineer who is alleged to have butchered his partner and best friend after catching them having sex on his canal boat.

William Cranston, 44, admitted he lost control when he walked in on lover Kay Morton and close pal Paul Wilkins romping on the boat, moored at Stoke Hammond, after a drunken night out.

But the softly-spoken father claimed that he did not remember stabbing the pair and just wanted them to explain the betrayal that took place at while he was sleeping just feet away.

Reading Crown Court heard that Miss Morton, 39, and 55-year-old Mr Wilkins, were knifed so furiously that they died in the blood-spattered lounge before medics could reach the scene.

Cranston had phoned 999 with the six-inch kitchen knife still in his hand, the jury was told.

He told the operator that he had 'lost his rag' and knifed the pair, before throwing the bloodstained weapon in the Grand Union Canal.

Cranston told jurors he was not thinking straight and that all he could remember was pushing both victims to the ground, before seeing blood and finding the sharp knife in his hand.

Cranston denies murder and is pleading provocation. The jury retired to consider its verdict yesterday, Monday.