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A court has heard that a man who was killed in a knife attack had threatened to kill the children of the woman accused of his murder.

On Tuesday, the jury at Coleraine Crown Court listened as the prosecution voiced police interviews carried out with Julie Ann McIlwaine, 33, of Hazel Close, Lagmore in west Belfast the day after she killed James Joseph Crossley, 38.

She admits causing his death but denies that she murdered him at her former home in Filbert drive in Dunmurry on 2 March 2022.

During the police interview she told them: “It’s like I was possessed like something came over me.

"When they told me they were charging me with murder my heart broke. I didn’t think he would have been dead."

Police interviews

The PSNI carried out a series of interviews with Julie Ann McIlwaine the day after she killed her partner. In them she outlined their tumultuous relationship.

McIlwaine told the police that she and Mr Crossley had had a series of “altercations” during their relationship.

As well as physical and verbal abuse she claimed Mr Crossley threatened her family.

“He threatened to shoot my kids. Threatened to burn the house down."

In another incident she said she tried to escape from him but he “rammed” the car she was driving causing it to go off the road causing £7,000 of damage.

She told the police she did not report the incident to police as she had been drinking and was afraid of getting in trouble.

In another incident she described needing to go to the hospital after he "strangled" her during a holiday to Spain.

During the police interviews, she described how her relationship with Mr Crossley was “completely secret” from their families as she was worried that social services would take her children away if they found out.

Night of attack

The accused outlined to the police how she had lived in a woman's refuge for six months to get away from her partner but that she made the “worst decision of my life” by getting back in contact with him.

At the time of his death James Crossley was on bail following an attack on Julie Ann McIlwaine.

Describing the night of the fatal attack McIlwaine said that her partner had been “aggressive” and “snappy”.

He had taken medication and gone to sleep in a bed beside their 10-month-old baby.

She told the police “it all just got on top of me” and she thought about taking her own life.

“I was getting all these thoughts in my head. I didn’t know what was going on. I felt like a psychopath," she said.

She described how she went to the kitchen, took the biggest knife there and went back to the attic room where he was asleep beside the infant.

“I set the baby to the end of the bed. I knew to get her out of the way. I didn’t want to get blood on her."

She then stabbed Mr Crossley 10 times.

“I couldn’t stop, I just kept pushing it [the knife] and pushing it. He said 'Julie Ann help me' I took the baby and ran out."

The trial continues.