A former Harrods shop assistant accused of murdering her boyfriend told a court she stabbed him accidentally as she tried to get him out of her flat.

Mother-of-two Annie Merrilees, 25, said nightclub bouncer Dean Williamson, 31, was a violent cocaine user who attacked her repeatedly.

On the night she stabbed him in the heart, Merrilees said she grabbed a knife to scare Mr Williamson,

“I never intended to kill him,” she sobbed.

“I was upset about what he did to me but I loved him. He loved me too.”

Mr Williamson – a heavy cocaine user – had been treated for mental illness, telling doctors he heard voices and wanted to stab people.

Merrilees said he grabbed her by the throat, punched her and attacked her when she was almost eight months pregnant.

On the morning of the day he died, December 17 last year, Mr Williamson punched her and repeatedly banged her head against a gas boiler.

Merrilees said she wanted him out of the flat in Glandford Way, Chadwell Heath, but he returned and barged his way in.

“He came over to me and was strangling me on the sofa. He was saying he was going to kill me,” said Merrilees.

She pulled a knife from a drawer, but claimed Mr Williamson said “I am going to f***ing kill you” and lunged forward.

“I leaned away to get away from him. Obviously that’s when it happened,” she said.

“I thought he was going to really hurt me.”

She said he went silent and dropped to the floor.

Merrilees initially claimed he stabbed himself, but a three-year-old girl said in front of police officers: “She did it – but it was an accident.”

Merrilees, of Glandford Way, Chadwell Heath, denies murder and manslaughter.

The trial continues.