Former Avon lady, 74, '˜fatally knifed' her toy boy lover after he urinated in her Dunstable conservatory

Angela Ayre, a former Avon lady, fatally knifed her live-in boyfriend Mark Evans after a night of drinking at their home in Dunstable.

When he was examined, he was found to be more than three times over the legal drive limit and she was twice over, Luton crown court was told.

A post mortem examination revealed that Mr Evans who, at 54, was 19 years younger than Angela Ayre, died from a stab wound to the heart.

The jury heard police and ambulance crews were called to the semi detached house in Redfield Close at 12 minutes past eleven on the night of Thursday March 8 last year. Mr Evans was pronounced dead at the scene.

Prosecutor Charles Ward-Jackson said: “Both parties had been drinking to excess.”

He said a row had broken out between the couple after Mr Evans had urinated in the conservatory.

A post-mortem examination by pathologist Dr Charlotte Randall found that the stab wound was 2cm wide and entered the left side of his chest below the left nipple.

“It is possible the knife had been gripped in an underarm motion. The depth of the wound was 10 centimetres. The knife was 8 and a half centimetres in length. It went right in - up to the hilt.

“The defendant says what happened was an accident, but the knife went through skin and muscle, under the sixth rib and into the left ventricle of the heart,” said the prosecutor.

Ayre, of Redfield Close, Dunstable, denies murder.

David West, a life-long friend of Mark Evans, told the jury today that a year and a half to two years ago he received a phone call from Angela Ayre in which she said she thought she had killed her partner.

He said he and his wife Sarah went round to the house to find that Angela Ayre had knocked Mark Evans unconscious and he was coming round.

“I asked if he was ok. His response was that Angela was washing up. He went behind and he grabbed her breasts and she elbowed him in the forehead.

“We stayed there for half an hour to 40 minutes to make sure he was ok and then we just left.”

Mrs West, who works at the Co-op in Westfield Road, Dunstable told the jury she would often sell the couple vodka.

Case proceeding