Woman shouted 'I will kill you', Wolverhampton murder trial hears

Caroline Loweth, aged 48, is accused of killing John Fletcher, 53, at her Wolverhampton apartment on October 27 last year.

She is standing trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court and denies murder.

The prosecution claims Loweth knifed Mr Fletcher after a row and has described their relationship as 'turbulent and difficult'.

The defendant had called the emergency services, claiming the victim fell on the knife while peeling vegetables.

Mr Fletcher, a former relief pub manager, was left with a single 13cm wound to the left side of his chest at the flat in Market Square, in the city centre.

Neighbour Karlene Bailey told Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday she regularly heard shouting coming from the flat next door, where Loweth lived.

In a second statement to police, given the day after Mr Fletcher died, Miss Bailey said she had heard Loweth make the threats.

Ms Diana Ellis, defending Loweth, cross-examined Miss Bailey over the second statement she had given to police.

She said: "I'm going to suggest to you that if you had heard Caroline Loweth say in the week or two before the death of Mr Fletcher 'I will kill you' it would be the first thing you would tell the police, not the day after."

Miss Bailey said: "So much was going on around me.

"I had police there, children running around and I was cooking the dinner. I just wanted to give a brief account of what I knew and get it done with.

"It was the next day I remembered that I had heard her (Loweth) say 'I will kill you'."

Miss Bailey continued: "The way she said it was angry.

"I'm not going to sit here and pervert the course of justice. I heard her say those words."

Another neighbour, Isaq Syed, who lived above Loweth said he often heard 'a lady's voice' shouting from the flat below.

Mr Peter Grieves-Smith, prosecuting, asked Mr Syed what the tone of the voice was: "She was angry," he replied.

Loweth, of Market Square, Wolverhampton, denies murder.

The trial continues.