Jury retires in Christmas Day murder trial

Kirsty Carless denies the murder of Louis Price on Christmas Day

A jury has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of a Staffordshire woman accused of stabbing a father-of-six to death on Christmas Day after seeing his profile on a dating app.

Prosecutors said Kirsty Carless, 33, plunged a knife into ex-partner Louis Price's heart in the early hours of 25 December in an attack "motivated by anger and jealousy, and fuelled by cocaine and alcohol".

The trial at Stafford Crown Court was told Ms Carless, of Haling Way in Cannock, took a kitchen knife in a taxi from her home to Mr Price's parents' address on Elm Road, Norton Canes, where she expected to find him with a woman.

Ms Carless denies murder.

During the trial jurors have been shown CCTV of Carless running up the front path into the house and then "stalking" 31-year-old Mr Price around the garden before he was later found with a single stab wound to the chest on the conservatory floor.

Ms Carless had called Mr Price 45 times between 02:15 GMT and 02:44, the court heard, while she waited for the taxi to take her to his address.

She was said to have asked the taxi driver to wait outside while she went in the property at about 03:00, before fleeing minutes later in the cab to her parents' address, where she was arrested.

Mr Price had been considered by police to be "at very high risk of domestic abuse" the jury was told, and Ms Carless was on police bail at the time of the fatal stabbing after allegedly strangling him on 11 November.

In her evidence, Ms Carless said she had no recollection of stabbing him, and added she was "not a violent person".

She said she had only gone to the address as she believed he had taken money from inside a card she had in her home.

She said she picked up a knife with intent to destroy the caravan he was staying in, in his parents' back garden, and had "panicked" after Mr Price was stabbed, and fled.

She denies murder and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place, and also denies intentional strangling and assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to the incident in November.

The jury were sent out to start their deliberations by judge Mr Justice Choudhury shortly before midday on Monday.