IPSWICH, England — The attempted murder trial of an RAF Mildenhall airman accused of stabbing a 62-year-old British man opened Monday at the Ipswich Crown Court.

U.S. Staff Sgt. Lorenzo Sanchez, 27, of Mildenhall’s 352nd Special Operations Group is accused of stabbing Derek Thrower more than 13 times on May 11 in a Lowestoft hotel room, about 40 miles east of the base.

Sanchez, who is charged with attempted murder and unlawful wounding, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The trial is expected to last through Wednesday.

Sanchez is accused of attacking Thrower after kicking in his hotel room door following a night of heavy drinking at local pubs and the hotel bar. Thrower received at least 13 stab wounds but was able to turn the knife on Sanchez, according to court testimony.

Sanchez and two other airmen were in Lowestoft on May 10 to prepare a site for water survival training the next morning. The airman is a survival, evasion, resistance and escape specialist whose job includes training aircrews on techniques used if their aircraft is forced down in a hostile area, how to evade or escape from captors and, if captured, how to act as a prisoner.

He was the Air Force’s SERE Specialist of the Year last year.