Suspect ‘happy’ with boyfriend

A woman has told jurors she was “happy” with her boyfriend before he was tortured and killed and has denied playing any part in his murder.

Mark Shaw was tied up, beaten, bitten, gagged, attacked with weapons and stabbed to death at his home in Grange Villa, near Chester-le-Street, in December last year.

The 29-year-old suffered multiple injuries across his body in the “sustained” attack, which prosecutors claim was at the hands of his girlfriend Zoe Warren, 19, and neighbour Keiran Adey, 19.

His body was found, still bound at the ankles, in a bedroom at his home.

Warren of Chipchase, Washington, and Adey, of Queen Street, Grange Villa, both deny murder and are being tried by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court.

While giving evidence from the witness box, War- ren told jurors: “He was great, he was like my best friend, we were really close. I was happy.” Warren has admitted she was at the scene when Mr Shaw was “tortured” and killed by her co-accused, but has denied being part of any violence.

Warren said she was “in my own world, in shock, scared” after the killing and said she “wasn’t thinking straight”.

She said she felt like a “coward” after the killing because she had not done more to stop it, but had been “terrified” at the time.

Warren also denies a charge of intimidation in relation to an angry letter she allegedly sent to a new man, who she “turned on” after he became a witness in the case.

She told jurors the note was penned out of “frustration” and had not been intended to intimidate.

Warren also denies intimidation. The trial continues.