Murder accused says she left threatening voicemails when '˜angry and drunk'

Prosecutor Kerry Maylin accused Victoria Arthur of calculating the attack on Nadine Burden after a series of threatening text messages and voicemails.

But Arthur said: ‘I was just angry and drunk.’

The defendant said she was whipped into a frenzy by her fuming partner Ms Palmer, who was angry Ms Burden would not pay back the money she owed.

‘Julie was really upset. She was screaming and had lost her temper and told me to go round to Nadine’s house,’ Arthur said.

When asked why she took a knife to Ms Burden’s house, Arthur claimed this was normal practice.

‘I always carry a knife when I go out. It’s for protection as normally I’m going to buy drugs,’ she said.

But she added: ‘I didn’t want to do anything with the knife. But Nadine lunged at me. I wanted her to see the knife.’

Arthur, 44, is accused of going to Ms Burden’s home in her wheelchair before butchering her to death in a frenzied attack.

Ms Burden was found dead in a pool of blood in January last year in Toronto Road after suffering seven stab wounds, including a fatal blow to her jugular.

The deceased owed Arthur’s partner Julie Palmer £100 after being lent the money in two instalments, but was unable to pay it back when asked.

Arthur, of Milton Road, denies murder after saying she acted in self-defence when she went to Ms Burden’s shared house armed with a knife.

(Proceeding)