Murder suspect tells of tension between boyfriend and alleged victim found in canal
A murder suspect has told a jury of a breakdown in relations between her boyfriend and the man they are accused of killing in the hours before his death.
Michelle Bird said neither her partner Lorenzo Simon nor victim Michael Spalding had slept after deciding to stay up all night decorating the house they shared in Smethwick.
Initially their bickering was friendly but the atmosphere turned sour as the night wore on and the tension continued to build the following morning, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
Miss Bird, aged 35, said she was woken several times during the night by raised voices, once when Simon, 34, found Mr Spalding asleep on the settee with paint splattered on the fabric.
She was woken in the morning to more raised voices when Simon discovered 39-year-old Mr Spalding had eaten some leftover meat in the oven. Simon accused his friend of taking advantage of him but Bird said she heard no threats of violence.
She admitted she gave her boyfriend an ultimatum after Mr Spalding appeared to snub her that night, telling Simon: 'Either he goes or I do.'
Bird, who was three months pregnant, claimed that Mr Spalding deliberately wound up Simon, causing her stress, and she told her boyfriend she could no longer put up with it.
She said: "I said I want him to go. I don't want him here. Either he left or I did. It had been going on for weeks and weeks. I'd said it a couple of times but that was the last straw, I really meant it that time."
While Mr Spalding was packing, Bird started sending sickening texts to contacts on his mobile phone, including his daughter, accusing him of being a woman-beater and a rapist.
Asked what his reaction had been when she told him what she had done, she said: "He shrugged at me. He didn't seem bothered. I didn't like it. I just thought it was totally out of order. He knew I was scared of a miscarriage but he didn't care."
Asked about the texts she sent, Bird said: "I was just being nasty. I'm ashamed of what I did. I didn't want anything to happen to him. I just didn't want anyone else to put him up."
Simon, of Oxford Road, Smethwick, denies murdering Mr Spalding on April 26 last year while Bird was at the shops. The victim's dismembered body was found in two suitcases dumped in the canal. Bird also denies murder.
The case continues.
