A WOMAN accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death in a drunken rage told a jury she had tried to push him away and then realised she had a knife in her hand.

Natasha Elderfield, 41, said she had not intended to cause Robert Dobinson any harm and did not realise he had been seriously injured.

Giving evidence at Oxford Crown Mr Dobinson and they had made lots of plans together.

Mum-of-four Elderfield said she had known Mr Dobinson since he was a child living in Faringdon and they had had an on-off relationship since 2012.

Defence barrister Andrew Hall asked Elderfield what had happened on the day Mr Dobinson died, on Sunday, October 19, last year.

She told the jury Mr Dobinson had stayed on her houseboat – moored in Abingdon – the night before, and they had sex that night and again the following morning.

Elderfield said Tony Steggles, with whom she had been in a brief relationship, had turned up with alcohol in the morning.

Mr Dobinson said he was going to a friend’s house in town and she stayed on the boat drinking wine with Mr Steggles.

The court heard there were 82 calls made from Mr Dobinson’s phone to Elderfield’s during the afternoon and early evening.

She said: “I really can’t remember most of them. It was probably just the normal thing Robert does, ringing up and saying: ‘I love you, I miss you.’”

Elderfield said she remembered calling the police at about 7.20pm, after taking a call from Mr Dobinson saying he was coming back to the boat, because she did not want him on the vessel.

She said she had probably drunk nearly two bottles of wine when Mr Dobinson came “flying” on to the boat.

Elderfield said: “He was throwing stuff around looking for the phones.

“He pushed me into the unit and grabbed my phone out of my hand and then left the boat.

“Robert came back on the boat and went to come down the steps.

“I went up the steps, I pushed him back out but as he went back I then saw a knife in my hand come from under his arm.”

Asked if she felt the knife come into contact with Mr Dobinson, Elderfield said: “I felt something and that’s obviously why I looked down after I pushed him back.”

She said he did not say he had been injured and the last she saw of Mr Dobinson, he was climbing out of the boat.

Elderfield said she turned around to go down the steps and told Mr Steggles, who had been sat on the bed during the incident: “I think I’ve stabbed him. He’s just walked on to the knife.”

Elderfield was taken to Abingdon Police Station where she was told by a policewoman at 1am the following day she was being arrested on suspicion of murder.

Mr Hall asked Elderfield if she had intended to kill or cause serious harm to Mr Dobinson.

She replied: “No I didn’t. I loved Robert. We had lots of plans. They have now gone.”

Elderfield denies murder.

The trial continues.