Stab 'murder waiting to happen'

The couple had shared a violent relationship, the jury heard

A woman has gone on trial accused of stabbing her partner to death in what the prosecution has claimed was "a murder waiting to happen".

Wendy Ellis, 40, of Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, denies murdering her partner William McCauley, 38, in April.

Caernarfon Crown Court heard the couple had a stormy and violent relationship.

But Winston Roddick QC, prosecuting, said that there was "nothing defensive" about the stabbing, and claimed Ms Ellis had stabbed Mr McCauley before.

He had been struck a number of times, including to his back in a previous attack in July 2005, Mr Roddick told the court.

"There was nothing defensive about the stabbing on that occasion and nothing defensive in the attack with the knife on 10 April this year," he said.

Ms Ellis thought murdering Mr McCauley was the only way out of the relationship, Mr Roddick told the court.

"It was as if people who knew the defendant best foresaw this kind of event as being inevitable. This was a murder waiting to happen," said Mr Roddick.

In his words the wound is entirely inconsistent with the victim coming onto or falling onto the knife Prosecutor Winston Roddick QC

The jury heard that Ms Ellis had told police that a drunken Mr McCauley had punched her in the face and pushed her at their home.

Ms Ellis told police she feared he would kill her. She said she ran to the kitchen, took hold of a knife used to peel potatoes and went into the parlour.

"He was standing in the parlour with a TV above his head and came towards me to try and hit me with the TV," she said in the statement.

Ms Ellis told police he missed, the TV set fell to the floor and he landed on her, while she held the knife.

"I then realised that the knife had pierced his body. I ran to the kitchen and dropped it in the sink."

But Mr Roddick said Ms Ellis had not taken the opportunity to escape through an open back door.

"She passed the back door and went to the drawer and selected the knife. She went back with the knife into the danger," he told the court.

Mr Roddick said the couple had lived together for more than 15 years but had a stormy relationship.

The jury heard the couple had been together for 15 years

Previously she had hit Mr McCauley on the head with a poker and she had also struck him on the head with a guitar.

But Mr McCauley, a labourer, was also violent to her although friends described him as "gentle, meek and mild" when he was sober, the court heard.

Mr Roddick said that on the way to Caernarfon police station after being arrested, Ms Ellis told police: "I've done it. I've suffered years of domestic abuse."

She confessed to stabbing her partner during a 999 call, Mr Roddick remarked.

Her explanation of what happened on the night of his death "doesn't hold up", he told the court.

A pathologist's report found the wound to Mr McCauley's chest was four-and-a-half inches deep, "entirely inconsistent" with the victim coming onto or falling onto the knife, said Mr Roddick.

The trial continues.