Police have released the audio of the 999 call when a yoga teacher tried to claim she’d acted in self defence after murdering her lodger.
Dawn Lewis, 53, is facing life in prison after being found guilty of stabbing Glenn Richards, 61, to death at her home because she wanted to evict him from her Somerset home.
Avon and Somerset Police have today shared the ambulance call Lewis made to try to throw emergency services off the scent, as well as CCTV of her arrest.
Police said in a statement: “Detectives were suspicious of her account after the doctor who treated her leg wounds suggested they were self-inflicted.
“An associate of Lewis’ then also told officers of a video call in which she showed him a knife and described what she might to do to Mr Richards.”
DI Neil Meade said: “Dawn Lewis concocted a plan she thought would allow her to get away with his murder.
“However, the witnesses’ evidence, along with that of the doctor who treated her at hospital, was compelling.”
In the audio clip, Lewis can be heard sounding confused and worried. When the ambulance call handler asks if the patient is breathing, she says “I don’t know” and adds that she “hasn’t touched him”.
When asked to explain what has happened, Lewis said: “I don’t know really what happened. He’s a lodger, I wanted him out, I said now.
“I went to the door, he stabbed me in the leg, I took the knife off him, I stabbed him, he fell down the stairs, I stabbed him again because he was trying to take the knife off me.
“Then I called you.”
The last part is difficult to make out, but Lewis mentions Mr Richards’ breathing.
The CCTV clip shows officers going to Lewis’ Glastonbury house at night to make an arrest.
Police tell Lewis to get on the floor as a dog barks. Lewis keeps telling police to “check my friend”, and they explain there are officers with him.
The clip shows Lewis lying on the floor as an officer tells her she is under arrest and puts her in handcuffs.
The trial heard Mr Richards moved to Glastonbury, Somerset, after being released from prison for killing his former wife in 2011.
He moved in with the defendant in August last year but prosecutors heard they would often argue and he would complain about her noise.
Giving evidence during her trial, Lewis claimed she feared for her life during a ‘struggle’ with the knife and claims he had tried to kill her.
But after nearly nine hours of deliberations, the jury rejected her claim that she was only defending herself when she carried out the fatal stabbing in April.
The guilty verdict was a majority one with 11-1 finding her guilty.
The court previously heard how Mr Richards suffered five large stab wounds, two of which were ‘not survivable.’ Lewis suffered three cuts to her thigh but one doctor told the trial her injuries “did not appear to fit the description of the attack” and appeared “self-inflicted.”
As part of the trial CCTV footage was shown of the moment Lewis was arrested in her home on 18 April while Mr Richards was “unconscious” and dying of his injuries.
The trial, at Bristol Crown Court, heard Mr Richards had been convicted of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility in 2002 for the killing of his ex wife.
Prosecutor Eloise Marshall told the jury they must decide if she acted in self-defence as per her emergency call “or whether her account was a lie to cover a planned attack and set the scene to pretend she’d been acting in self-defence?”
The verdict was returned after a trial at Bristol Crown Court.
Lewis had said she had become increasingly alarmed about her lodger’s behavour and begun carrying a knife as he started talking “in a different manner” about the killing of his wife.
She said: “He started fantasising about how he would do it differently. He would just come out with it.
“I was terrified he was going to jump out and stab me.”
Lewis said on the day of the killing she was confronted with the defendant and claimed he had ‘lunged at me’ with a knife after she said she’d call the police.
She added: “He lunged at me and I saw he had a knife. I grabbed his arm. Then I bit him, he dropped the knife.
“He was going to kill me.
“I picked up the knife. I think at the time I thought I’d stabbed him in the stomach, but he was still holding on to me.
“I know I stabbed him, it was me, nobody else, I have to own that.”
Lewis told the jury he then tried to stab her again during a struggle and she shoved him with her foot and he fell down the stairs.
She told the court: “I wanted him to break a leg or be unconscious. I wanted him away.
“He was sitting at the bottom of the stairs looking up with a knife still in his hand. He was conscious and had the knife in his hand. He then slouched and the knife dropped. He cried out “help me”.
“He grabbed my ankle and I fell on my knees. He went for the knife but didn’t get it. So I grabbed it and stabbed him.”
Lewis phoned 999 to report the incident and the call was played to the jury.
When asked to say exactly what had happened by the call handler, she responds: “Right, I don’t know really what happened. He’s a lodger, I wanted to get him out. He said no.
“I went to the door, he stabbed me in the leg, I took the knife off him, I stabbed him.
“He fell down the stairs - I stabbed him again, as he was trying to take the knife of me. and I called you.”
Video footage played to the jury also showed the moment of her arrest as she screams to cops while being restrained on the floor: “Check my friend. I’m wounded but I’m not **** dead.”
Lewis will be sentenced later.
