A WOMAN accused of stabbing her friend to death and leaving her in a pool of blood for hours before calling emergency services maintains the injuries were self-inflicted.

Keegan Barnes told police that Toni Butler had come into her home unannounced before smashing a bowl over her own head and falling head-first down the stairs.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the 28-year-old performed CPR on Miss Butler until paramedics arrived and discovered she was dead.

Jurors listened to the audio recording of the 999 call as Barnes is talked through what she needed to do.

Minutes after the ambulance crew arrive at the house on Vulcan Way, Thornaby, they contact the police after becoming suspicious about the circumstances surrounding the 25-year-old’s death.

The Northern Echo: Toni ButlerToni Butler

Nick Dry, prosecuting, told the court that the defendant was arrested at the scene on June 10 last year and body-worn camera footage was shown to jurors.

In the footage, Barnes can be heard saying, ‘She self-harms. She smashed a bowl over her head. I tried to lay her on my bed but she’s heavy, you know what I mean?’.

The next evidence was transcripts of the defendant’s police interviews from the following day, which were read out to the court by Detective Constable Emma Charlesworth.

During the interviews Barnes denies murdering her friend but says how Miss Butler became ‘lary’ when she turned up at her house before describing what happened next.

She said: “I know she self-harms, she hit herself over the head with a bowl.

"She was sat at the end of my bed on the floor. I was like 'are you alright?' because I’ve never seen blood like it.

"I got up and we both went down and that’s when she fell down the stairs."

Barnes told the officers that they had both been taking drugs and drinking throughout June 10 after an impromptu party started on the grass outside her home and maintained that she had done nothing to hurt her friend.

The officers ask Barnes about how Miss Butler came to be found at the foot of her stairs.

They said: "She’s stood at the top of the stairs and you’re behind her and she goes forward. She hits her head on the stairs and flips over?"

Barnes: "Yeah. I was screaming 'are you alright?' Because a girl that big seeing her fall, it was horrible. I was like 'Howay, get up'."

The defendant said she put pillows under her friend's head and left her there before falling asleep on the sofa.

In a further police interview, Barnes was quizzed about how Miss Butler suffered the fatal stab wounds and why a teenager was asked to hide a knife in the defendant’s garden.

The officer said: “The teenage girl says she wrapped the knife in a pink top. She says you told her you done something. You told her you stabbed Toni - that’s her account."

Barnes replied: “She’s lying.”

The Northern Echo: Officers protecting the scene at Vulcan Way, Thornaby.Officers protecting the scene at Vulcan Way, Thornaby.

Earlier in the trial, jurors heard how Miss Butler had died of catastrophic blood loss after suffering two stab wounds to her calf – one piercing a main vein.

The prosecution said efforts had been made to clean Miss Butler’s body before different clothes were put back on her. The alleged victim’s blood-soaked Dumbo nightie was discovered in a plastic bag in the kitchen of the house.

Barnes, of Vulcan Way, Thornaby, has pleaded not guilty to murder. The 28-year-old maintains that she acted in self-defence after Miss Butler attacked her.

The trial continues.

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