A WOMAN accused of stabbing a former friend in a drunken confrontation said she was acting in self-defence as she feared being attacked herself, a court heard.

Patricia Louise Chapman is accused of stabbing the victim, a woman in her 40s, in the back with a kitchen knife as the pair clashed in the living room at the home of a mutual friend, where they had all been drinking, in Pine Street, Grange Villa, near Chester-le-Street, on November 4 last year.

The prosecution in the case at Durham Crown Court say the victim had already fought off one potential attack, in which she had to bite Chapman’s arms to make her drop a hammer and knife, in the kitchen, a short time before the stabbing.

The victim suffered a 5cm deep stab wound in the middle of her back, a collapsed lung and a fractured rib.

But, giving evidence on the second day of her trial, 31-year-old Chapman claimed they had been getting on well during the evening until the other woman made a remark which unsettled her.

She said the other woman, who is bigger, ran at her and grabbed her, and in the struggle appeared to be trying to take a knife from a rack, so she reached for a hammer to strike her arm.

Chapman said as the struggle continued, the complainant bit her in the arm, and, following a brief lull, came running at her with a chisel-like object.

The defendant said she responded by grabbing a knife from the kitchen bench and, as the other woman turned, she lashed out with it, not realising it had, “caught her in the back”.

In cross-examination, Phillip Morley, prosecuting put it to Chapman that she had changed elements of her explanation.

The defendant replied: “No, that’s what happened.”

Chapman, of West Street, Grange Villa, denies wounding with intent.

The trial continues tomorrow (Friday March 11).