A woman has gone on trial at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for unlawfully killing her partner by stabbing him in September 2001 during a domestic argument.
Ms Nicola Brereton (41), Church Street, Kilcock, Co Kildare, has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of John Smullen (52) on September 14th, 2001.
Mr John Aylmer, prosecuting, told the jury in his opening address that the incident happened in the couple's home on Church Street after they had spent a night out at a nearby pub.
He said Ms Brereton told the gardaí that when they returned Mr Smullen jumped on top of her and ordered her to open her legs but she refused.
He then pushed her against the television, picked up a microphone stand and threatened to hit her with it.
She told the gardaí that at that point she knew she was in trouble and she took the knife from the draining board and asked him to leave her alone.
She said she stabbed him once in the chest as he ran at her.
Ms Brereton said she then ran out of the house with the knife in her hand but she didn't think she had stabbed Mr Smullen too badly because he tried to run after her.
She said she left the knife on the window sill of a chip shop 100 yards from their home and went in, where she asked someone to contact the gardaí because she had just stabbed her partner.
Mr Smullen collapsed in the house and when the emergency services arrived, all attempts to resuscitate him failed and he died at 2.30 a.m. the James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown.
Mr Aylmer concluded that it was the prosecution's case that Ms Brereton used "excessive force and was thereby guilty of manslaughter".
The trial continues before Judge Frank O'Donnell and a jury of nine men and three women.