I wish he was still alive, says murder accused

A prostitute on trial for the murder of her lover has told a court "she never meant for it to happen" and she wished he was still alive.

Dionne Liza Neale, 39, told the High Court at Auckland yesterday she stabbed Reece John Shadbolt, 38, in the arm as he showered in his Parnell flat on Waitangi Day, 2007.

The pair had met at Mustangs Gentleman's Club on the North Shore, where Neale was an escort, in 2004 and had an on-off relationship.

He was stabbed nine times in the chest, shoulder, throat and back, but the wound that killed him is believed to have been one that penetrated his heart and lungs.

The Crown alleges that deadly blow was the first Neale inflicted and occurred in the shower, but she says that came later as she was struggling to get him off her.

Under cross-examination, Neale said she stabbed Mr Shadbolt in the arm and wanted to hurt him. "I shouldn't have ... I should have just walked away, but I didn't," she said.

Prosecutor Kevin Glubb put it to her that she planned the murder by hiding the knife in her handbag and her claim that she stabbed him first in the arm was a lie.

"That morning you had a dream of stabbing Reece, so you went and did it," he said.

Neale said she had dreamed of stabbing him but it hadn't been that morning and she remembered it only after the killing.

Mr Glubb: "You loaded up your handbag and went and did it." Neale replied she "didn't mean for it to happen".

Mr Glubb said Mr Shadbolt - an advertising executive behind the Carlos Spencer Toffee Pops ads - didn't see her coming.

The Crown case is that after he was stabbed, he staggered from the bathroom, splattering blood on the walls, as the pair struggled. He was stabbed eight more times.

Mr Glubb said Mr Shadbolt was naked, on all fours on the ground with "blood pouring out of him" when he was stabbed again.

Then, as he lay on his back, Neale stabbed again, Mr Glubb said.

"On his back on the ground you gave him a couple more, didn't you?" Neale said she didn't want him to get up and get her.

Mr Glubb said she then stabbed him in the abdomen as he lay "flat on his back".

Neale: "I didn't mean for it to happen - I lost control. I feel so bad for what happened, no matter what you say. I feel guilty. I never meant for it to happen, I wish he was still alive."

Under re-examination from her defence lawyer, Louise Freyer, Neale said that after she stabbed Mr Shadbolt in the arm in the shower, he screamed at her and came with his arms out and grabbed her.

She got a fright and the pair struggled, with Mr Shadbolt grabbing the knife off her. She fell to the ground and "pushed up" to get him off her in the hallway and this is where she thinks he received the fatal wound.