A JURY has been sent out to decide whether a woman who stabbed her landlord in the neck was acting in self defence.
Stacey Bilverstone denies one count of attempted murder against Andrew Davis on June 25 this year outside the home they shared in Kendall Crescent, Cutteslowe, Oxford.
Her trial concluded at Oxford Crown Court today with Judge Ian Pringle summing up the cases of the prosecution and defence before sending jurors out to deliberate.
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Earlier in the trial the court heard from prosecutor Charles Ward-Jackson that Mr Davis ‘felt sorry’ for the 42-year-old but she went on to become ‘a bit of a nightmare flat mate.’
Mr Ward-Jackson said things came to a head when Bilverstone arrived home in a ‘foul mood’ in June and came at Mr Davis with a ‘murderous ferocity’, and started strangling him.
Mr Davis’s account is that he then ran into the hall and closed the door on her, hastily pulling on shoes that turned out to be two odd trainers, and fleeing outside.
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She allegedly then grabbed a kitchen knife and chased him around a parked car, jumping on his back when he tripped and fell, then stabbing him in the neck and once in the throat, severing minor arteries.
As she stabbed him, he claims she said ‘I’ll do time for you, I’ll go down for your murder’.
Bilverstone denies attempting to murder Mr Davis, instead her defence claimed during the trial that she acted to protect herself and that the landlord had subjected her to a campaign of abuse in the run-up to that night.
She claimed he beat her and kept her confined in the flat, and even raped her on one occasion, the court heard last week.
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