A WOMAN on trial accused of murdering her boyfriend told the police six months before the killing he had punched her repeatedly in the face, a jury heard.

Film taken by officers when Scott Dunne was arrested for allegedly assaulting Alexia Heckles on July 9 last year was played at Bradford Crown Court today.

Prosecutor Andrew Kershaw said Heckles appeared to taunt Mr Dunne from the doorway of her flat in Rosemary Gardens, Allerton, Bradford, after officers were called out in the early hours.

The police can be heard telling her to go back inside.

At the police station, Mr Dunne said in interview: "She thinks she is the victim. She loses the plot sometimes."

Heckles, who denies murdering Mr Dunne by stabbing him through the heart on January 18, complained to the police in the earlier incident that he had come in drunk and punched her in the face.

She said he was jealous and controlling and had an alcohol problem.

Mr Kershaw said Heckles told officers in July last year that she did not wish to provide a statement or go to court.

Heckles, 35, was due to start giving evidence in her defence yesterday.

The trial judge, Mr Justice Stuart-Smith, told the jury she was unwell and had been taken to see a doctor.

She was now expected to begin giving her evidence on Monday.

During the first week of the trial, the court heard that Mr Dunne, 41, died from loss of blood when he was stabbed with a large kitchen knife in the bedroom of the flat he was sharing with Heckles.

She is said to have taken his bank card and hid it in her bra where it was discovered by the police after her arrest.

Mr Kershaw said the couple began a relationship in 2011 and had a child together.

Neighbours told of hearing loud arguments from the flat in the evenings.

On the night Mr Dunne died, witnesses told the jury they heard Heckles shouting and the sound of furniture being displaced.

The trial continues.