Prostitute's despair drove her to kill lover - lawyer

A prostitute accused of murdering her lover was not a "cold-blooded killer" hell-bent on revenge but a woman "driven by her partner to the brink of despair", a High Court jury has heard.

Defence lawyer Barry Hart asked jurors to find his client Dionne Liza Neale, 39, not guilty of murder when he gave his closing address yesterday.

Mr Hart said Neale admitted stabbing Reece John Shadbolt, 38, in the arm with a carving knife as he showered in his Parnell flat on Waitangi Day 2007 - but that she was not guilty of his murder.

"We accept what she did was wrong. It shouldn't have happened ... she was at breaking point and he came barrelling at her and was stabbed in the process," Mr Hart told the Auckland jury. "If he hadn't come rushing at her that would have been the end of it."

Mr Shadbolt was wounded nine times in total and the Crown case is that a stab wound to the heart and lungs is what killed him. The Crown said that wound was inflicted first and that Neale was lying when she said it happened after the shower incident.

Mr Hart rejected the prosecution's claim the death was well planned, saying it was accidental or in self-defence.

He said Neale had a troubled past, with abusive relationships.

After the closing address and a summary of the case by Justice Graham Lang, the jury began its deliberations yesterday afternoon and retired for the night at 7pm. It will continue this morning.