A mum accused of murder today told a jury: "I'm not an angel."
Natalie Bennett is currently standing trial at Liverpool Crown Court charged with murdering her boyfriend Kasey Anderson. He died a week before his 25th birthday in March this year after being slashed several times with a knife and suffering two stab wounds.
Mr Anderson called 999 as he lay gravely injured in the street outside his 47-year-old girlfriend's home on Carr Lane East in Croxteth and told call handlers "he was dying". Bennett then claimed to the police that he had arrived at her home "like that".
READ MORE: Live updates as Natalie Bennett appears in court over Kasey Anderson murder
She was called to give evidence from the witness box as the defence case began this morning, Thursday. The mother-of-four told the court that their relationship had begun around four to five years ago after Mr Anderson "came to her home selling cocaine to her mate", although she had previously known him "from the area".
Bennett said they became "really close", adding: "I was going through a bad time, splitting up with the kids' dad. He was there, buying me nice things.
"I loved him. I still do."
She agreed that their relationship was "on and off" and that they would argue "every week". Bennett said of this: “He’d flip.
"He was paranoid Kasey, very paranoid, paranoid about anything, me going with people. He’d say I was going with this, going with that, going with other lads, it was mostly then."
Bennett described Mr Anderson as "mad", and said: "He would go nuts, shouting at you. He wouldn’t be told no.
"I’m not an angel. I’d have an argument as well.
"When he’d flip or something like that, it was more verbal. Sometimes we’d have a fight, I can’t even remember."
Stanley Reiz KC, defending, asked his client about an incident during lockdown where she was alleged to have spat in Mr Anderson's face. But Bennett said: "No that’s not right, we were arguing."
Mr Reiz said that she had attended Whiston Hospital with a head injury on October 16 2021, which she said had been caused by him "hitting her on the head with a phone". The defendant stated that she was left with a "gash across her head" which had to be stapled shut, and added: "We was just arguing.
"He took my phone off me, I wanted it back. He just whacked me in the head with it.
"He's hit me on the head before with the same thing. He’d always say he was sorry and we’d get back together."
Bennett reported that she had suffered another cut on the head in February 2022 after being hit with a phone. But she denied having attacked her partner's auntie Denise Anderson or causing him injury during this incident.
Ms Anderson said in her evidence yesterday, Wednesday, that he had been left "looking like the Elephant Man" at her hands. Bennett, who described herself as an alcoholic, was also said to have attended Aintree Hospital on May 1 last year having sustained a fracture to her left knee.
She said of this: "Kasey threw me down the stairs. He just chucked me down the stairs from the top.
"I was going back out and he didn’t want me to. It was me sister’s ex-boyfriend’s funeral.
"Me leg come out of place, me knee. I had to get a big thing on me leg for six months."
Bennett denied having ever caused him a black eye and said she had not stabbed Mr Anderson, as his mum Lesley Tobin alleged on the witness box yesterday. Turning to the events of March 11 this year, she claimed that he had become angered after her friend Claire Smith arrived at her home with her dog and a cans of Desperado.
She was said to have stayed for "just under an hour", during which time the visitor and Kasey apparently smoked crack cocaine in the kitchen. Bennett said: "Kasey used to flip on her, Kasey didn’t like her.
"Her and Kasey were standing in the back kitchen. I was just prattling round.
"Kasey thought Claire was talking about him. He just flipped, 'get out the house', ragging her everywhere like a ragdoll."
Mr Anderson was reported to have ripped Ms Smith's coat as he dragged her to the front door. Bennett stated: "She was shouting back at him.
"She was shouting 'I’ve got two brothers, I’ll kill you'. He was like 'get them'."
Ms Smith then left, and Bennett and Mr Anderson remained in the house on their own for around an hour. She said: "He was saying 'what’s she come round here for, she’s a dog, she’s this'. When he goes on one, he goes on one – I was just arguing back probably."
She recalled having left to meet with Ms Smith before returning at around 5pm to get her phone. Bennett told the jury: "We were gonna get me phone and go back to hers.
"Kasey wouldn’t let us in, the door was locked. Because Claire was with me.
"She was hiding. I was saying 'she’s not with me'.
"He was saying 'she is'. I was saying 'she’s not, open the door'."
Bennett said Mr Anderson did open the door "for me, in the end" but "told her to get away". She continued: "She’s shouting she’s going to get her brothers to kill him, and he’s saying 'go on'.
"She’s thrown her can at the wall. He was telling her to get away, 'f*** off'."
Ms Smith then left again, and Bennett alleged that Mr Anderson began "smoking crack cocaine in the baby’s bedroom", referring to her 19-year-old son's room. She said: "I'd only just had all the house done.
"He was smoking in the bedroom. It’s the kid’s room isn’t it?
"I’ve just got a brand new bed, brand new everything. I didn’t want him doing it there.
"I took the crackpipe off him. We was just fighting then.
"He must have grabbed it back off me. He grabbed me by the head, just ragged me down the side of the bed.
"He scragged me by the head down the side of the bed. There’s a gap, and I fitted down it."
Bennett described herself as "scared" and added: "When Kasey flips, he flips. He was just shouting.
"He’s just had the drugs. He’s on one.
"I’ve just got the kid's rooms done. We were fixing the blinds, there was a screwdriver on the side.
"I’ve put my hand up on the ledge and got the screwdriver and striked out with it. I was scared."
Bennett reported that she then ran downstairs and was followed by Mr Anderson, who "got her by the head" and pulled out a clump of her hair. She said: "I was crying, I think.
"He put his fingers in my eyes. That’s why I had a black eye.
"It happened so fast. It was horrible.
"We were rolling around. I never hit him though.
"It all happened too fast. When Kasey goes angry he says 'I’ll cut your face from there to there so no one looks at you'."
Bennett claimed Mr Anderson had armed himself with a knife during this exchange before Ms Smith then arrived back at the property. She said: "When Claire come, something happened and Kasey kicked me in the stomach and I fell through into the back kitchen.
"He’s kicked me and I’ve flew into there, into the kitchen, and I’ve peed myself. I think it was because Claire come.
"As soon as she come he just flipped again. I peed myself because I was scared."
Bennett said she was left "on the floor, by the sink" before she "grabbed the knife off the side". She described how she "struck out" with the weapon "because she was scared, scared of Kasey" and "what he was going to do".
The court was told that she had aimed a blow with the blade "just once", after which Mr Anderson was "just shouting his mouth off" and all three then "ended up outside for some reason". Mr Reiz asked: "What were you intending to do?"
Bennett replied: "Not hurt him like that anyway, no chance. Not to do that.
"I loved him. I still do.
"I was scared. I wouldn’t hurt him, no chance.
"I still love him. Not one day goes past where I’m not hurting inside thinking of him."
Bennett stated that she was not aware how badly injured Mr Anderson was, adding "not one bit". Two members of his family walked out of the public gallery at this point.
After a break, she said that she was "scared but angry as well at the same time". Bennett added: "He’d just kicked me right across the living room and made me pee myself, scragged me all over the place."
Ring doorbell footage then appeared to show her aiming at blow at Mr Anderson's head as he lay injured in the next door neighbour's driveway. She said did not make contact with the knife in her hand, adding: "I was just shouting at him, I wouldn’t have hurt him with it."
Bennett was asked about several knives which were later found in her kitchen sink and appeared to have been washed, including the broken handle of one blade and the screwdriver. She said: "I clean up all the time.
"I don’t really know. I’m always cleaning."
Bennett also claimed she had "cleaned up her pee off the floor" with a mop because "it was embarrassing". When asked why she had told the police that Mr Anderson had arrived at her address having already sustained his injuries, she replied: "I just panicked.
"I’m sorry. I didn’t think I'd hurt him like that."
Bennett reported that she was left with "bumps all over her heard and a big black eye" following the incident. She added: "I wish I could turn back the clock.
"I was scared, scared of him, scared of the way he turned. He kicked me in the stomach.
"It happened dead fast. It was horrible.
"I was scared for my life to tell you the truth. I don’t want to say that, it’s not nice is it?"
Richard Pratt KC told the jury of four men and eight women during the prosecution's opening on Tuesday that Bennett's next door neighbours "heard raised voices" coming from the address at around 5.30pm on Saturday, March 11, before finding Mr Anderson "banging and kicking at their door" roughly 45 minutes later. The 24-year-old was apparently "seeking help", although the occupants were described as being "frightened by the disturbance" and instead called the police.
He too dialled 999 while sitting seriously injured on their doorstep to report that he had been stabbed. Mr Anderson "repeatedly told the operator that he was dying" but added that he "did not know who had stabbed him or where they were".
Many of his answers were said to have been "incoherent", with the casualty left vomiting such were the severity of his wounds. The call handler could hear Bennett's voice in the background though and asked to speak to her instead, at which point she "effectively took over the call".
She told the operator that Mr Anderson had "stab wounds all over him" which she believed were "a bit deep". But the defendant claimed that she did not know who had stabbed him, saying: "He's come in like that."
He was later found to have suffered superficial slash wounds to his neck, right shoulder, lower back and left forearm, as well as a "shallow" stab wound to his right lower leg. But Mr Anderson had also sustained a "deep stab wound" to his chest, which damaged his left lung and heart.
After being rushed to Aintree Hospital, he underwent "what was hoped to be life-saving surgery" but died 20 days later in the early hours of March 31 – just over a week shy of what would have been his 25th birthday on April 8. Mr Pratt said: "The medical evidence suggests that this was not just one blow with a knife, but one of several wounds.
"The slash wounds may have been superficial in nature and the stab to the leg may be of a shallow depth, but together they demonstrate a concerted attack which provides the background for the fatal wound to the chest. It is our case that Natalie Bennett lied to the operator because she knew full well what she had done and had no excuse for it."
Mr Pratt said that Ring doorbell footage recovered from the neighbour's house showed Bennett "holding a knife to the head of the distraught and injured Mr Anderson" with her right hand and "using it either to strike Kasey Anderson in the head or at the very least hold it close to his head". He added: "Thus, we suggest, she continued to demonstrate hostility towards him even after she must have known she had stabbed him in the chest."
When officers arrived, she again alleged that he had arrived at her home "like that" and claimed that the first time she had seen him that evening was when she heard him banging on her next door neighbour's home. Bennett would subsequently give no comment to detectives under interview, but it is anticipated that she will claim during the trial that she inflicted Mr Anderson's fatal wound "in lawful self-defence".
Crime scene investigators later discovered a clump of her hair on the floor of the house, which appeared to have been "forcibly removed" from her head. A "number of sharp implements" were meanwhile found in the kitchen sink, "having apparently been soaked in water at least" and with no blood found upon them while the address was said to have "smelled strongly of cleaning fluids".
Bennett denies murder. The trial, before Judge Denis Watson KC, continues.
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