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A 74-year-old woman who walks with a stick stabbed her younger partner to death when he urinated in her conservatory, a jury heard.

Angela Ayre, a former Avon lady, is accused of fatally knifing her live-in boyfriend Mark Evans after a night of drinking at their home in Dunstable, Beds.

When he was examined, he was was found to be more than three times over the legal drive limit and she was twice over, Luton Crown Court was told.

A post mortem examination revealed that Mr Evans who, at 54, was 19 years younger than Angela Ayre, died from a stab wound to the heart.

(Image: south bedsnews agency_sbna_fairl)

The jury of 6 men and 6 women heard police and ambulance crews were called to the semi-detached house in Redfield Close at 11.12pm on Thursday March 8 last year. Mr Evans was pronounced dead at the scene.

Prosecutor Charles Ward-Jackson said: "Both parties had been drinking to excess.

"A blood sample taken from Mr Evans gave a reading of 252mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood with the drive limit being 80. Angela Ayre gave a reading of about twice."

He said a row had broken out between the couple after Mr Evans had urinated in the conservatory.

A post-mortem examination by pathologist Dr Charlotte Randall found that the stab wound was 2cm wide and entered the left side of his chest below the left nipple.

"It was orientated almost vertically. If one were looking at a clock face it would be between 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock. The sharp side was uppermost with the knife being held upside down.

"It is possible the knife had been gripped in an underarm motion. The depth of the wound was 10 centimetres. The knife was 8 and a half centimetres in length. It went right in - up to the hilt.

"The defendant says what happened was an accident, but the knife went through skin and muscle, under the sixth rib and into the left ventricle of the heart," said the prosecutor.

Ayre, of Redfield Close, Dunstable, denies murder.

David West, a life-long friend of Mark Evans, told the jury today that a year and a half to two years ago he received a phone call from Angela Ayre in which she said she thought she had killed her partner.

He said he and his wife Sarah went round to the house to find that Angela Ayre had knocked Mark Evans unconscious and he was coming round.

"I asked if he was ok. His response was that Angela was washing up. He went behind and her grabbed her breasts and she elbowed him in the forehead.

"We stayed there for half an hour to 40 minutes to make sure he was ok and then we just left."

Mrs West, who works at the Co-op in Westfield Road, Dunstable told the jury she would often sell the couple vodka.

The trial continues.