Elliots Town: Woman stabbed her mother's friend - court

A woman comforted her dying neighbour after her daughter allegedly stabbed him, a jury has been told.

Michelle Press, 53, described talking to her "best friend" Marc Ash, 57, as she called 999 for help.

Mr Ash, from Elliot's Town, New Tredegar, Caerphilly county, died from a single stab wound in July last year.

Rebecca Press, from Trecenydd, Caerphilly, denies murder and actual bodily harm at Cardiff Crown Court.

In a video interview played to the jury, Ms Press described how her daughter Rebecca, 31, told her: "I just stabbed your best friend to death."

Ms Press said Mr Ash had been her neighbour in Long Row, Elliot's Town for three years at the time of his death, and said they were "like two peas in a pod".

On the day of the alleged murder, her daughter Rebecca had come to her mother's flat to spend the weekend with her. She had split up with her boyfriend.

Ms Press said that, after drinking a few cans in the communal garden of the block with her daughter, Mr Ash and three other friends on the afternoon of 16 July, Rebecca and Mr Ash went to a pub and the local rugby club.

Ms Press said her daughter was "as right as rain", but later she received a phone call from Mr Ash who she said was concerned about her daughter's behaviour.

Ms Press said Mr Ash told her: "She's playing up, I can't cope with her."

Ms Press said: "I told him (Mr Ash) if she is still playing up, just come home."

Mr Ash came back to the flat and watched a film with Michelle Press.

When Rebecca Press returned to the house, her mother said she was shouting and screaming, upset that her brother Gavin, a friend of her ex boyfriend, was also at the flat.

Ms Press said she asked her daughter to calm down but Rebecca became more agitated, and accused her mother of spitting in her face.

She said: "She gripped my arm, I saw teeth, I thought she was going to bite me."

She said she was shouting and thought spit landed in her face.

"She was in my face. I didn't spit in her face," said Michelle Press.

Ms Press said she went into her bedroom to call the police and examine the damage to her nose, which had caught on Rebecca's tooth, using the duvet cover to stop the bleeding.

"I know she didn't mean to do it," she said. "It just happened so quick."

Mr Ash tried to calm Rebecca down but moments later he lay dying on the kitchen floor.

Ms Press said her daughter came into her bedroom, shouting, and explicitly told her that she had stabbed her best friend.

In the days prior to the alleged murder, Rebecca Press - known to her family and friends as Beccy - had split with her partner Ashley Allen, who sold valium.

The court was told Rebecca Press had experienced "problems" with valium but had tried to stay away from it.

When Mr Allen split with her, he left her without food or money. Ms Press said she offered to have her daughter stay with her at her flat in Long Row for two or three days.

"She had literally nothing," she added.

The trial continues.