A PROVISIONAL trial date has been set for a Basingstoke man charged with the murder of a 33-year-old man in Popley.

Kenneth George Walker, 63, of Tasmania Close, is charged with stabbing Craig Laurie to death.

On Monday, May 20, Winchester Crown Court heard that a trial, expected to last three weeks, has been listed to start on Monday, November 11. Walker did not attend the hearing. 

READ MORE: Kenneth Walker in court accused of Craig Laurie's murder

A plea and trial preparation hearing will be held on Friday, August 9. 

Police were called by the ambulance service just before 9pm on Sunday, May 12, to a report of a stabbing at an address in Tasmania Close. 

A second man, aged in his 30s and from Newbury, suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries and was taken to hospital.