A WOMAN on trial for attempted murder has been accused of ‘fanciful and desperate’ lies to paint her alleged victim as a ‘monster’.

Oxford Crown Court heard more today in the trial of 42-year-old Stacey Bilverstone, who denies trying to murder her landlord Andrew Davis on June 25 this year.

Jurors have already heard how the pair had lived together in Kendall Crescent in Cutteslowe, and that Bilverstone ended up stabbing Mr Davis in the neck that night.

Bilverstone claimed, via her barrister, that she acted in self-defence and that Mr Davis had subjected her to a campaign of abuse in the run-up to that night.

She claimed he beat her and kept her confined in the flat, and even raped her on one occasion, the court heard.

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Prosecutor Charles Ward-Jackson told the jury this afternoon: “The defence say he beat her, that he kept her prisoner and controlled her money.

“It painted him as some kind of monster - the man who neighbours say was quietly spoken, who sat outside on his little patio area, was portrayed as the monstrous Bluebeard of Cutteslowe.

“The impression given was that she had changed when she moved in with the ‘evil’ Mr Davis and went from a rather angelic, motherly figure, to a rather sad, drug-haggard, beaten woman.”

He dismissed this as ‘nonsense', however, adding: “The reality is that she was an abusive, somewhat devious and manipulative lodger.

“It’s a fanciful, desperate attempt to turn the tables on Mr Davis.”

The barrister said Mr Davis kept a ‘quiet, gentle and courteous’ manner during evidence while Bilverstone came across in police footage as a ‘torrent of self-pity’.

He added: “Her crocodile tears are just that - they are a show, they are put on.”

The defence has not produced any witnesses in the trial as Bilverstone, whose registered address is still Kendall Crescent, chose not to give evidence herself.

She did not turn up for court today, which is when the prosecution evidence concluded.

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Mr Ward-Jackson told jurors: “If she was being repeatedly injured, all she had to do was walk from the dock, the five yards or so to the witness box, take the oath and tell you all about it.

“She herself has said nothing under oath - she’s not even present.

“She continues to say that he’s the real villain here.”

He said the prosecution’s case is that what happened is the ‘culmination of her abusive behaviour towards him’, and that she had been aggressive both physically and emotionally to Mr Davis in the past.

Jurors heard how Bilverstone has a history of convictions dating between 1997 and 2018, including for shoplifting, common assault, robbery and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour.

Mr Ward-Jackson said she came home in a ‘foul mood’ that night in June and came at Mr Davis with a ‘murderous ferocity’, and started strangling him.

Mr Davis’s account is that he then ran into the hall and closed the door on her, hastily pulling on shoes that turned out to be two odd trainers, and fleeing outside.

She allegedly then grabbed a kitchen knife and chased him around a parked car, jumping on his back when he tripped and fell, then stabbing him in the neck and once in the throat, severing minor arteries.

As she stabbed him, he claims she said ‘Ill do time for you, I’ll go down for your murder’.

The trial continues and the defence case is due to be put to the jury fully tomorrow.