Accused denies flat stab attack

Christopher Devine denies stabbing 56-year-old Sandra Vincent

A 22-year-old man who denies murder has told a jury that he did not attack a woman at his sister's flat.

Christopher Devine, 22, is accused of stabbing Sandra Vincent, 56, five times at a flat in Rhyl, Denbighshire.

Mr Devine, from Rhyl, also denied at Caernarfon Crown Court that they had been lovers.

He told his QC, Stuart Lawson Rogers, they had been "purely friends" although his sister had told him Ms Vincent "had a physical attraction to him".

Ms Vincent died in October 2006, two days after she was attacked.

Computer games

The jury has heard she had five stab wounds, one of which has penetrated the chest wall into the abdomen and almost gone through her liver.

Giving evidence, Mr Devine said: "She was friendly, bubbly, outgoing, easy to get on with. We had a great laugh."

He said he would spend his time in his sister's flat mainly watching TV, playing computer games, and drinking most days.

Questioned about the night Ms Vincent was fatally injured, Mr Devine said they had a chat then he went for a sleep, believing she was having a bath.

He slept for a while then woke up, watched TV and had a cigarette and a drink.

When his sister and others returned to the flat, Miss Vincent was found lying on the bathroom floor.

Asked by Mr Rogers what he though when he saw her there, the defendant answered that he had no idea what might have happened.

"I thought it was a self-inflicted injury at the time," he said.

'Obsessed'

Cross-examined by Simon Medland, prosecuting, Mr Devine denied lying during his evidence.

He also rejected a suggestion he placed Ms Vincent in the bath at first to try and make out she had killed herself, but then had been interrupted by people returning to the flat.

When Mr Medland asked if he was suggesting a random person must have come off the street, up three flights of stairs and through a closed but unlocked door of the flat, Devine answered: "Yes."

The court has already heard how Ms Vincent was "strangely, deeply attracted" to Mr Devine, and one of her relatives said she had been "obsessed" with him.

Jurors have also been told that before she died, Ms Vincent told her ex-husband that it was her boyfriend who had attacked her.

The case continues.