Leigh Park murder trial: Shaye Groves tells court she 'feared for her life' before stabbing Frankie Fitzgerald to death

Shaye Groves, 27, told jurors at Winchester Crown Court that she grabbed an object and stabbed Portsmouth dad Frankie Fitzgerald, 25, to death during a frenzied knife attack at her Botley Drive, Leigh Park, home on July 17.

The defendant said a row erupted between her and Mr Fitzgerald after he demanded to see messages to her ex-boyfriend – with her describing the situation as ‘volatile’. Then in the early hours of the morning, Groves said she went through his phone. The defendant told the court she found a message from a teenage girl before she ‘threw the phone at him’ and ‘called him some horrible names’ after the discovery had ‘tipped me over the edge’.

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Groves, a pagan and goth who suffers with bipolar and PTSD, said: ‘I was angry and upset. He told me to lay off. I told him if he did not tell me (about the message) then I would put videos on Facebook (of them having sex) and go to the police (about her claims she was raped). That made him really angry as I had told him I had deleted the videos.

‘His whole demeanour and body language changed. I’ve seen him angry before...but he was in a rage. He grabbed me by the throat and pinned me to the bed on the headboard.’

She continued: ‘I couldn’t breathe or cough or scream. My eyes were streaming and going blurry.’

Groves said she ‘genuinely feared for my life at that point’ before adding: ‘I reached out and grabbed an object from the bookcase and hit him in the throat. It was over in a couple of minutes. It felt like it happened in seconds.’

Asked by her barrister Michael Goodwin KC if she realised it was a dagger she had grabbed, Groves said: ‘I didn’t register what I grabbed. I was in a panic.’

Groves then said Mr Fitzgerald briefly ‘stood up’ before he ‘rolled down and hit the floor’. She added: ‘I didn’t react at first. I was in a lot of shock. When he stopped moving there was bubbling and a weird noise coming out of his neck.’

Speaking of when Mr Fitzgerald’s hand ‘dropped’ from holding his neck, Groves said: ‘It was then that I realised what I had done…that I had killed him.’

She added: ‘I stabbed him in the heart to try and stop the bubbling.’

Asked if Mr Fitzgerald was moving when she stabbed him in the heart, Groves said: ‘No, I had already killed him.’

Pushed on why she stabbed him on the floor, she said: ‘I didn’t like the bubbling.’

Questioned what was going through her mind, a sobbing Groves said: ‘I’m not sure…it’s something I don’t remember. I know I was in a panic trying to stop the bubbling.’

The court was previously told Mr Fitzgerald was stabbed in the neck and chest area 22 times.

(Proceeding)