A woman accused of murdering her boyfriend said she stabbed him because she thought he was about to do it to her, a court heard.

Dee Lawrence said she acted in self defence, as she gave evidence at Bristol Crown Court during the second week of her retrial.

She denies murdering 25-year-old Jack Delany, who died in the early hours of April 16 last year after being wounded at her flat in Columbia Close, Gloucester on the evening of April 15.

Mr Delany, who had also been living there, suffered a 2cm wound that led to cardiac arrest. He could not be saved and died at Bristol’s Southmead Hospital.

The trial had previously heard that Lawrence told police someone had burst into her flat and stabbed her boyfriend before quickly leaving.

But, while being questioned by James House QC, for the defence, she agreed this had not been true.

The 32-year-old said she stabbed Mr Delany, with what she described as a sharp-ended kitchen utensil, after he came at her with a knife.

Attack happened after an argument

The court heard it followed a heated row in the flat, prompted by Mr Delany being disappointed about how quiet she was when they had sex.

She said she had not wanted to have sex, not least because they had a violent argument earlier in the day, but relented.

As the coupled rowed, Lawrence said Mr Delany came at her with a knife, “with intent”.

She said: “I’ve seen him attack people with knives. You don’t mess about with him. I knew he was going to use it.”

Sobbing, she demonstrated to the court how she had two hands on the item and stabbed Mr Delany with it.

She said it was to stop him from stabbing her and added: “It was just how I reacted and I’m sorry.”

Lawrence explained to Mr House that before his condition worsened after he was stabbed, Mr Delany said he would tell the police he had been attacked by another man, called Tiger.

Jack Delany

She said she and a friend, Craig Phillips, who was also in the flat at the time, agreed that was what would be said.

And she said she felt obliged to stick to the story later, once she had offered it to the police who attended the flat after she rang 999 for an ambulance.

Lawrence told the court she rinsed the weapon she had used under the tap and, she thought, put it back in a drawer. This was before she made the call to the emergency services, she said.

Mr House said: “Did you want to kill Jack?”

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Lawrence replied: “No, I didn’t want to stab him, I didn’t want any of that to happen.”

Earlier in the day, the court heard how Cheltenham-born Lawrence had problems in her life, especially after she left school at 16.

Brought up in Bredon, near Tewkesbury, she later settled in Gloucester.

She had anxiety issues, suffered from depression and had a serious drink problem.

'Relationship had problems'

After a period of rough sleeping in the city, she moved about - living in various supported housing scheme premises, before ending up in Columbia Close.

After meeting Mr Delany in 2016, their relationship started well but they both drank heavily and took drugs and it descended into violence.

Lawrence said many of the rows they had were because Mr Delany was a paranoid schizophrenic who became jealous of other men.

She said he slapped and punched her and spent time in prison as a result.

But she said she loved him and he had nowhere else to live so she took him back into her home when he came out of jail.

Attacks on her by Mr Delany had included a headbutt, which left with her an eye injury.

Bristol Crown Court

Asked by Mr House why she did not report the matter to the police, she said: "I was homeless. Jack was the only real person in my life."

Expanding on why she kept other similar incidents from the police, she said Mr Delany would apologise, sometimes while crying. He would blame it on alcohol and not having had his medication for his illness, she said.

The court heard that Lawrence had succeeded in getting a non-molestation order imposed on Mr Delany to try to stop him from bothering her.

But she said he was very persistent and she allowed him to live in her flat because he was homeless.

Couple would reunite after falling out

Both drank large amounts of alcohol, took drugs and there were arguments - many of which were because of Mr Delany's jealousy.

Pressed again by Mr House about why she allowed him to share her home, Lawrence said: "I only had him at the flat because he was waiting for the council to rehouse him."

The court heard that Mr Delany was a drug dealer and liked to have knives in various parts of the flat for his protection.

Lawrence said she feared for her safety but regularly forgave her boyfriend after he was violent towards her.

The court heard that on one occasion, he bought her flowers and a goldfish to apologise.

"He would melt my heart and I let him back in," Lawrence said.

She added: "When I said 'Get out', he would say 'I've got nowhere to go' and would get emotional."

But the court heard that Mr Delany's drug dealing lifestyle had led others to threaten him. Lawrence said he told her he had been stabbed six times and shot at.

She said: "Jack wasn't safe in Gloucester, full stop."

Her evidence revealed he had threatened two men with a knife in separate incidents before the wounding that led to his death.

And she said about two weeks before it happened, Mr Delany had come at her with a knife in an incident that led to a friend, Taffy, badly cutting his finger while trying to take the blade from him.

The trial continues.