A WOMAN who allegedly murdered her boyfriend in a drunken rage told a lover “I’ve stabbed the b*****d”, a jury heard yesterday.

The accusation was made on the third day of the trial of Natasha Elderfield, who denies killing Robert Dobinson on her boat in Abingdon on October 19 last year.

But the witness who made the claim, Tony Steggles, 55, admitted he repeatedly lied to police and was asked if it was really him who fatally stabbed the 33-year-old.

Mr Dobinson, from Faringdon and known locally as Robert “Raggy” Smith, was found by police lying on a river bank near Abingdon Bridge at about 7.45pm.

Mr Steggles, of Bridge Street, Abingdon, said he had been alone with Elderfield aboard the boat and she was sitting on his lap when her boyfriend arrived.

He said: “Robert flew into the boat and was saying ‘where’s my phone?’ “Robert and Natasha started arguing and that’s when they went up into the top part of the boat.”

Mr Steggles said he couldn’t hear any violence, but the arguing suddenly stopped and Elderfield’s legs appeared at the top of the boat’s stairs.

The witness said he asked Elderfield what she had done and she replied: “I’ve stabbed the b*****d.”

But under cross examination from her barrister Andrew Hall QC he admitted that “a great deal” of what he told the police was actually not true.

And under questioning Mr Steggles said Elderfield, 41, might have actually said “he’s just walked onto the knife” or something similar.

He also said he had “forgotten”

there was a struggle in the boat’s cabin between the three of them, with Mr Dobinson acting as the “aggressor”.

Finally Mr Hall asked him: “Was it you who stabbed this man?”

The witness replied: “No, I didn’t stab him.”

The trial continues.