“I stabbed him. I thought he was going to stab me,” said a woman, 23, accused of stabbing and killing her boyfriend in Bicester earlier this year.

Bailey Heywood, of Germander Way, allegedly stabbed Dale Bond, 45, twice in the chest at his home address in Mullein Road on the morning of March 13.

The pair had been dating for over a year prior to his death.

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She has denied the charge of murder as well as an alternative charge of manslaughter and is now on trial at Oxford Crown Court.

On Monday (September 9), the defence case started and the nursery worker took to the witness stand to give her evidence.

Speaking about Mr Bond, she said that she had loved him. When asked if she had wanted to be in a relationship with him, Heywood replied: "Yes...he made me feel good. He was just nice to me."

She told the jury that she saw him ‘several times’ a week and the pair would go to the shops or the pub together.

Talking about the day of the incident, Heywood she had gone round to Mr Bond’s home and the pair had had sex before sitting on the sofa together.

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However, she states that Mr Bond had then become angry as her ex-partner, Tom Ellison, was repeatedly messaging her.

She said: "Dale started to get angry because my phone was constantly going off with messages from Tom. 

"He was just saying that Tom needs to stop harassing me, pestering me, that kind of thing.

"I was getting a bit nervous because he was getting angry. Dale was shouting saying he wanted to kill Tom.

“[Dale said] 'I'm going to kill that c***' and that we deserve each other because we're both c****.

"He said he was going to make him beg for his mother. I told him to stop talking like that.

“He went and got a knife from the kitchen. He had it in his hand and he carried on shouting...that he was going to kill Tom and Tom was trying to f*** up his life.

"He was very angry. [I felt] scared. I went into the kitchen...to pick up a knife. I walked with it Dale to try and calm him down.

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"I was crouched down, telling him to calm down and it wasn't Tom's fault.

"He was sat on the sofa. He carried on saying he was going to kill Tom. He said...I was just as bad as him [Tom].

"He went to stand up...I stabbed him. I thought he was going to stab me."

The trial continues.