I panicked, says murder accused

Janine Birch claimed she reached behind her for a knife after Martin Wheelhouse pinned her against a cooker in the kitchen of Alexine Cowell’s home in Portland Road, Wortley, Leeds.

Giving evidence at Leeds Crown Court she told her counsel Alistair MacDonald QC she swung with the knife “because he had just hit me with the bat. If he had not started and just left, it wouldn’t have happened”.

“I just wanted Martin to get away from me and leave me alone,” she told the court. “I just remember feeling that I couldn’t get away, that he was just there in front of me. My heart was pumping really, really fast. I was, like, panicking. I just thought that he was going to really, really hurt me.”

Birch, 43, of Blenheim View, Leeds, denies murdering Mr Wheelhouse, 41, of Bramley, Leeds on August 16 last year.

The prosecution claims that after the pair argued they were separated by Miss Cowell and that Birch then deliberately stabbed Mr Wheelhouse, then stood on him after he collapsed on the floor while Miss Cowell was trying to give him first aid.

Birch agreed she did stand on the injured man but that was because she was “trying to get over him.”

She said she shouted abuse at him because she was angry.

The trial continues.