A woman accused of murder said "I don't want to carry on" as she was questioned by the prosecution's barrister in the witness box.
Emma Walsh is currently standing trial accused of murdering her partner Gary Morgan, having knifed the 36-year-old in the heart at her home in Everton following a night in the pub. The mum-of-two continued to give evidence at Liverpool Crown Court this afternoon, Tuesday.
At one stage while being quizzed by prosecutor John Benson KC, she refused to continue and requested to return to the dock. Walsh claimed that a series of messages which had been put before the jury and showed Mr Morgan confronting her over injuries he had suffered at her hands had been incomplete, and had omitted pictures of injuries that he had allegedly inflicted on her.
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The chat log put before the jury was a summary of key communications between the couple as deemed relevant by both the prosecution and defence. These were obtained from both his and her phones.
But Walsh said: "I don't want to carry on. I want my photos.
"They're on my Instagram and everything. They've got my phone - just click on the app, put my password in.
"All the messages are there and the pictures. There's a lot more.
"I don't want to carry on. I want to go back."
The Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC, who is presiding over the trial, told Walsh that she was not compelled to answer Mr Benson's questions but stated that she could not leave the witness box. He had referenced the messages sent between her and Mr Morgan several times during his interrogation.
Mr Benson also accused Walsh of "trying to brazen it out and shamelessly trying to avoid responsibility" in giving changing accounts of events in the aftermath of his death. These included saying the tradesman had been stabbed by "some fella in town", suggesting it may have been committed by a former partner of hers, stating that he had fallen onto a broken piece of plastic from a Bluetooth speaker and then confessing that she was the one who had knifed him - but only in self-defence.
She responded that she was "scared the first two times I got interviewed". Walsh claimed she had only stabbed Mr Morgan once, although a post-mortem investigation revealed three separate wounds from the weapon.
Mr Benson told her: "Unfortunately, there are two sides to your character - there is one, usually in drink, when you become furious and see red. Do you occasionally see red and behave in a very violent way, out of control?"
Walsh responded: "On occasions to protect myself when I'm attacked. Yes."
She denied having previously attacked Mr Morgan with a butter knife and a spirit level on other occasions. Walsh also stated she had not stabbed her former partner Ayton Courtney-Stephens, who yesterday told the jury that his then girlfriend had plunged a steak knife into his wrist - cutting an artery in doing so.
This was said to have come after a row was sparked shortly before Christmas 2018 when he refused to buy tampons on her behalf. On his stabbing, Walsh alleged: "He had people after him because of drugs and money."
Mr Benson said: "You aimed a blow at his chest and said 'I'm going to stab you lad'. That will be the end of you'."
Walsh replied: "No. He had a lot of enemies in Liverpool city centre."
Mr Benson continued: "You flew into a fury and you started kicking, punching and biting him. That's what you do, isn't it?"
Walsh responded: "No. That's incorrect."
Mr Benson said: "You were kicking and punching and trying to bite him. He restrained you to try and calm you down."
Walsh said that he had "come at me with MMA and boxing moves". She added: "I didn't do nothing."
Mr Benson stated that she later confessed to another of her ex-boyfriends, Barry Squires, that she had stabbed Mr Courtney-Stephens. Walsh denied this, saying: "I never stabbed Anton in the arm, they could have been speaking to each other and told each other things."
Mr Squires also gave evidence yesterday, Monday, and reported that she had been abusive to him - including pulling a knife on him. But she alleges that both he and Mr Courtney-Stephens were abusive towards her during their relationships.
Mr Benson suggested that Walsh was "not very lucky in love", to which she agreed. But he added: "Or is it the common denominator is you?"
She responded: "No. That's not correct."
Mr Benson said that at 10.35pm on the night in question, less than an hour before Walsh stabbed him, Mr Morgan had changed his Facebook cover picture from one of the pair to a photograph of only himself. She said: "I'm not sure.
"He always changed his picture. Everyone changes their picture on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram."
Mr Benson responded: "I'm sure they do, it's not the fact that he did. It's the time he did it."
Walsh said: "You can change it any time. It's your Facebook account.
"It still said 'in a relationship with Emma Walsh'. So I'm not sure why it would cause an argument."
Mr Benson asked: "He did it 45 minutes before you were on the phone to the emergency services. What was going on?"
Walsh claimed: "I didn't even know he'd changed it before I heard it in the court. It's not a problem."
Mr Benson suggested she would "erupt like a volcano" when drunk. Walsh said: "Not all the time, it depends on the situation I'm in."
During her testimony, she was also asked to give her account of events leading to the deceased being detained by police after he allegedly assaulted her in the street on February 19 this year. The couple had been at a friend's house on Mirfield Street in Kensington, and the mood had been "good" before a row erupted between her and Mr Morgan.
Walsh said on the stand: "He started to attack me in Kevin's house, swinging at me. It caused me to rip all me coat off me, so we got told to leave the premises.
"He was trying to headbutt me. He tried to, then he did and caused injuries to me.
"He split me nose open. Kev told us both to go, so we both left and headed towards my dad's."
Walsh said "things escalated" once they had left the address and Mr Morgan, from Prescot, attacked her on nearby Boaler Street. The defendant told the jury: "Gary just started grabbing me, swinging me round by my top and my shoulder and my arms.
"He put me on the floor. He started restraining me, so I started screaming."
Walsh described how she was "on me belly" and Mr Morgan was "throwing my arms right up me back". She added: "He was booting me when I was on the floor when I was trying to get him off me, like moving round."
The 31-year-old said the blows were landing on "me back and sides" and he kicked her "about three" times. Walsh said she was "screaming out for help" and was able to flee when a witness called the police.
Police spoke to her the following day about the incident, and it was later decided that no further action would be taken against Mr Morgan. She said: "They asked me did I want to take matters further - I said no, because he was next to me."
Richard Pratt KC, defending, asked Walsh: "When you stabbed Gary, what were you intending to do?"
She replied: "I weren't intending to kill him. I just wanted him to get off me."
Mr Pratt then enquired "what did you expect to happen?". Walsh responded: "That he'd be alright."
The defence barrister asked: "Did you want him dead?"
Walsh replied tearfully: "No, I just wanted to warn him he was going too far."
Jurors previously heard that she and Mr Morgan had watched Liverpool FC's 2-2 draw with Manchester City on the television in the Belmont pub on the afternoon of April 10 this year. They stayed for karaoke before returning to the bungalow on Lavan Close where she lived with her dad at around 10pm.
Walsh then plunged a kitchen knife into his chest, with the blade piercing his left lung and heart. She alerted the emergency services at around 11.20pm, but Mr Morgan was pronounced dead shortly after midnight.
The defendant denies one count of murder. The trial continues.
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