Jurors in the case of a woman accused of murdering her boyfriend by stabbing him in the heart are set to retire to consider their verdicts.
Emma Walsh fatally knifed Gary Morgan on April 10 this year at her home on Lavan Close in Everton. This followed an evening in the Belmont pub, where the couple had watched a Liverpool FC match on the television before staying for karaoke night.
The prosecution and defence counsel gave their closing speeches today, Thursday, after the final pieces of evidence were heard by the jury. Representing the former, John Benson KC described 31-year-old Walsh as a "controlling individual with an explosive temper".
He said she had attacked Mr Morgan, 36, in an "explosive rage". The prosecutor told jurors: "There is only one person who is able to tell you what truly happened at 8 Lavan Close between about 10.30pm and 11.20pm on April 10 this year and that person is the defendant, Emma Walsh.
"What you now know is that she stabbed Gary Morgan with a kitchen knife, resulting in a catastrophic injury and his untimely death. That fatal incident marked the end of a relationship which had begun just over 12 months before when the defendant, on Facebook, made contact with Gary Morgan.
"You can recall his excitement at thought of meeting Emma Walsh. Little would he have known he was embarking on a romance with a young woman who, we say, had some deep seated character flaws.
"Those flaws provide the clue as to what happened that night. She is, we suggest, a controlling individual.
"It is a characteristic coupled with an irrational, suspicious mistrust of her partners and an explosive temper, particularly when in drink - a readiness to use violence with teeth and weapons, including knives. Sadly, the reality is there was never going to be happy ending to this relationship.
"In a drink-fuelled rage, she attacked Gary Morgan with the knife. This was nothing other than an attack, when the defendant had no reason to be defending herself from a violent attack by Gary Morgan."
Mr Benson said Walsh "has it in herself to attack people with knives". He referred to an incident in which she is said to have stabbed her former partner Ayton Courtney-Stevens, whom he said "nearly suffered the very same fate as Gary Morgan".
His refusal to go to the shop to buy her tampons had "prompted an explosion of rage" in her. He was said to have been punched, kicked and bitten before Walsh said "I'll stab you in the heart lad, and your life will be over" and aimed a blow at him with a steak knife.
Mr Courtney-Stevens was able to deflect this away from his chest, but the blade went straight through his wrist and severed an artery. Mr Benson also brought up the account of another ex-boyfriend, Barry Squires - who said she had pulled a knife on him and threatened to stab him.
The prosecutor described Walsh as a woman who "courts violence" and "flies into a rage and becomes violent", with jurors having heard of previous occasions when she is said to have hit Mr Morgan with a rake and a spirit level and stabbed him with a butter knife. He also cited different accounts given by her following his death, which included saying he had been attacked by "some fella in town" and had sustained his fatal injury after falling onto a broken shard of a bluetooth speaker.
Mr Benson added: "Emma Walsh's first explanation for what had happened was Gary Morgan had had an argument with some fella in town, and it was nonsense. She tried to get away with it, and she did when she was interviewed for the first time.
"He was the angry man, and he had smashed her speaker. Then she purported to give the third, and she says truthful, explanation.
"That last bastion of a desperate woman is that she acted in self-defence. Self-defence simply doesn't arise in this case.
"All the circumstantial evidence of this relationship points to a very different scenario. What started out as a day having a few beers at home and then going to the Belmont and watching the football took a very nasty turn.
"Once she has got a temper on, it just gets hotter and hotter. Gary Morgan, unfortunately, on April 10 received what he had feared and had said for some time before he was killed.
"That, we suggest, is the truth of the matter and you can be sure of it. If there is any truth in what she told you, she would have told the police because she is the victim - but she didn't."
Richard Pratt KC, defending, pointed towards the events of February 19 this year, when Mr Morgan was arrested on suspicion of assaulting Walsh in the early hours. Eyewitnesses recalled seeing a woman being punched, thrown to the floor and repeatedly kicked to the head and torso during an incident on Boaler Street in Kensington.
He also cited the evidence given of members of Victory Outreach Liverpool, a church on Sheil Road. They said they had seen Walsh with bruises on her face, an injury to her eye and in a "disheveled" state when attending various services - while one also saw her with "red grab marks near the top of her arms" when collecting her from near the Jolly Miller pub in West Derby on one occasion.
Mr Pratt added in his speech: "A great deal of evidence has been placed before you about the events alleged to have taken place in the year or so in which Gary Morgan and Emma Walsh were together in a somewhat toxic relationship. The real issue, you may think, is what happened on that night.
"As to that, we suggest there is limited direct evidence. You may think, both in volume and in time spent in court, it has been dwarfed by evidence from friends and family of Gary Morgan and then by partners or former associates of Emma Walsh.
"That evidence took days and days as witness after witness gave evidence of what Gary had told them and how they saw for themselves injuries sustained at the hands of Emma Walsh. It may well be that you formed a view favourable to the prosecution, that Emma Walsh could do no good and Gary Morgan could do no wrong.
"I have no wish to add to the pain of those so devastated and bereaved by the loss of a much loved son, brother, father and friend. At the same time, you cannot overlook the evidence you heard yesterday.
"The evidence of what witnesses saw in Boaler Street demonstrates that Gary Morgan himself was capable of serious and unpleasant violence. Fundamentally, it may shed a different light as to what may or may not happened on night of April 10.
"It is evidence which should cause you to rethink the evidence you heard from family and friends. Does it not make you wonder what did happen or may have happened behind closed doors?
"It was not just that night in Boaler Street. What of those witnesses from Victory Outreach, who saw Emma with injuries?
"What reason would they have to be untruthful? If those injuries were there, how did they come to be there?
"You may think that the one-sided portrayal of the relationship between these two has, frankly, been very seriously undermined by what you heard happened on Boaler Street on February 19. It may be that you will conclude that Emma Walsh was at times violent towards Gary Morgan - but the evidence which came yesterday can leave you in no doubt at all that Gary could be violent too, and where does that leave you when unravelling what happened on the night of April 10?"
Mr Power said that Mr Morgan, from Prescot, "flew off the handle" after returning from the pub - sparked by an apparent exchange between her and a man she knew while at the Belmont. He said: "Was Gary capable of explosive accusations of infidelity against Emma Walsh?
"She candidly acknowledged she was capable of that. But so was Gary.
"Back at Lavan Close, he flew off the handle - once again accusing her of infidelity because of people she had seen in the pub or was receiving calls from. The next question is, so enraged, is he capable of inflicting violence upon her?
"I'm afraid the events of February 19 answer that question - yes he was. Can you exclude that he was violent towards her in the way she described?
"Was Gary Morgan in the sort of jealous rage we see occasionally in those text messages? If so, you may think the possibility is all too real that anger went on to violence."
Mr Pratt said that Mr Morgan had been throttling Walsh, and that she had grabbed and used the knife in self-defence. He told the jury: "You may want to put her in her shoes, when she couldn't breathe because of the pressure being applied.
"She says, at that stage, she picked up the knife. If she feared strangulation, her use of the knife must be measured in that light.
"Although her actions had enormous consequences, so too can strangulation. We say, on a fair and proper analysis, you could not say that in the seconds she took the knife and stabbed Gary Morgan that the use of force and its catastrophic consequences was disproportionate"
"We say, the reality of the situation is what she did that night may well have been without consideration of the consequences - without any real intention at all, and certainly not an intention to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to the man she loved. It really is so very important that you always bring yourself back to April 10 and what happened in that house.
"We say, based on all the evidence, you should properly be in a real sense of doubt as to what happened that night. If you are the verdict is not guilty - full stop."
The Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC described the events as "shocking and tragic" during his summing up, adding: "The evidence seems to be that at times it was a good, loving relationship but at others it was completely toxic. There appear to have been many arguments with allegations and counter allegations.
"There are also claims that each was abusive and violent towards the other, principally when drink was involved. These are issues you will have to consider.
"It is alleged that when Emma Walsh stabbed Gary Morgan, she was acting aggressively and not in self-defence. She had a habit of using or threatening violence against her partner.
"For whatever reason, that night she simply lost her temper and stabbed him several times. The prosecution argue that on this night she did what she had threatened to do to other partners and Mr Morgan in the past.
"The defendant says things happened quite differently. It is Emma Walsh's case that the person in this case controlling and prone to violence was Gary Morgan.
"It is alleged he came at her in the kitchen and put her hands under her chin so she couldn't breathe. In desperation, she picked up a knife from the draining board and stabbed him once."
The judge added that Walsh claims she "was at all times acting in lawful self-defence", believing that Mr Morgan was "going to kill her". A panel of six men and four women which remains after two jurors were dismissed from their duties during the course of the trial is expected to begin its deliberations tomorrow morning, Friday.
Walsh denies one count of murder. The case continues.
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