Murder accused Tshabu Benos has told the Lusaka High Court that she did not realise that she had stabbed her lover Reeves Malambo until she saw blood.

Testifying before judge Gertrude Chawatama yesterday, Benos said it happened so fast that she only realized what she had done after seeing blood.

She said would never have wanted to hurt or kill Malambo.

Benos claimed that her maid lied when she told the court that she was heard her shout three times that she would kill Malambo becauseas it was too much of him beating her.

“What Tamara said is not correct and I leave it to God to be the judge. “I do not know why she said that but it’s left between her and God because I did not say that ‘today I will kill you’, I don’t even beat my kids,” Benos said.

Benos further claimed that she felt embarrassed to tell the police everything that had transpired because some of Malambo’s relatives were present.

“I was scared and shaking, I couldn’t tell the police everything,” testified Benos.

Benos insisted that that her lover was so abusive that he could check her private parts with his fingers to make sure she had not slept with another man, which statement she never gave to the police.

She also admitted that she never told the police that she had cuts and bruises on her body as a result of the fight between the two.

Meanwhile, when Benos was grilled by by chief state advocate Gamaliel Zimba, she admitted that she had failed to take responsibility for her actions when she failed to tell her daughter and the doctor that she stabbed Malambo.

She admitted that she was not helping the nurse by only stating that she had hurt her lover when in fact, she stabbed him.

Benos said it had not dawned on her that he was so badly injured he would die as a result of the stab wound.

However, Benos claimed she didn’t tell her daughter the truth because she presumed that she had seen what had happened.

The state advocate also wondered why Benos was avoiding Malambo on that material day and night for reasons best known to herself.

Benos said she challenged police to take the tomato paste which was splashed on the wall inside the house to the lab for testing to prove that it wasn’t blood as they suspected.

The accused also told court that three of Malambo’s relatives entered her cell room at Lusaka Central Police, hurled insults and attempted to beat her.