Jury shown footage of murder suspect’s arrest

AJURY has watched shocking footage showing the moment a female murder suspect was arrested for stabbing her “friend” and lodger as he lay fighting for his life in her cottage.

Yoga teacher Dawn Lewis, 53, is seen being restrained on the floor by police in her home after the fatal stabbing of Glenn Richards, 61.

Lewis is currently on trial accused of murdering the former police officer, who moved to Glastonbury, Somerset, after being released from prison for killing his former wife in 2011.

In the bodycam footage, police can be seen approaching the cottage, running to the door and showing a Taser.

They are heard shouting to Lewis to move back and step away before she is ordered to get on the floor and not make any sudden movements.

In the video, which features a dog barking throughout, Lewis asks the officers to go and check on her “friend”.

She says: “My friend, my friend. But check on him. I am worried about him, he might be dead.”

The officer responds and tells her: “We’ve got colleagues with him, calm down, don’t make any sudden movements.”

He then gives an update on his police radio and says: “We’ve got one male, who has been confirmed stabbed. He’s currently unconscious, being worked on. We’ve got one female detained on the floor.”

She is then arrested, initially for GBH with intent and read her rights, before later being charged with murder.

The jury at Bristol Crown Court heard Mr Richards had been convicted of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility in 2002 and moved in with the defendant in August last year.

But prosecutors said Lewis would often argue with Mr Richards who would complain about her noise.

Earlier in the trial, the jury were played a chilling 999 call featuring Lewis telling call handlers: “I stabbed him. He fell down the stairs and I stabbed him again.”

The court heard she had also wanted him out of her home.

The defendant denies murder and claims she was acting in self defence when she stabbed Mr Richards on April 18 this year.

In the 999 audio to report what she had done, she is asked “Is the patient breathing?

She responds: “No, no, I don’t know. I haven’t touched him.”

Then when asked to say exactly what has happened, she responds: “Right, I don’t know really what happened. He’s a lodger, I wanted to get him out. He said no.

“I went to the door, he stabbed me in the leg, I took the knife off him, I stabbed him.

“He fell down the stairs. I stabbed him again, as he was trying to take the knife of me, and I called you.”

But prosecutor Eloise Marshall KC told the jury that on the day of Mr Richards’ death, Lewis had called a friend Peter Bredell on video and showed off an eight-inch knife.

During the chat, she told him: “Should I just go up to his bedroom and stab him and then stab myself a little bit and tell them he did this?”

Mr Bredell said he didn’t take the threats seriously.

Jurors were told the victim suffered five deep stab wounds while Lewis was treated in hospital for three light cuts. One doctor said her injuries “did not appear to fit the description of the attack” and appeared “self-inflicted”.

Ms Marshall told the jury they must decide if she acted in selfdefence “or whether her account was a lie to cover a planned attack and set the scene to pretend she’d been acting in self-defence?”

The trial continues.