THE woman accused of murdering her grandmother with a spade once stabbed her former partner, a court has heard.

Joanne Hussey was said to have used a kitchen knife to stab Gary Punchon after a blazing row in 2005.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court heard that Hussey, 33, had a history of being violent towards Mr Punchon during their 12-year relationship.

Hussey, of Yeadon, near Leeds, is accused of murdering her grandmother, Annie Garbutt, of The Clough, Mirfield, in a brutal murder on May 7 last year.

She denies the charge.

On the second day of the trial, the court heard Hussey suffered from depression throughout her adult life.

The jury of seven men and five women also saw CCTV footage of Hussey which captured her movements during the early hours of May 7.

They also heard evidence from medical experts who examined the body of Mrs Garbutt, 76, after the horrific attack.

A forensic scientist found DNA evidence linking Hussey to the murder scene.

Mr Punchon, the father of Hussey’s 12-year-old daughter, told the court his relationship with Hussey ended in 2006, months after he claims she stabbed him.

He said: “We were going to split the equity from the house... and there was an argument.

“I wasn’t agreeing to give her any more money and she ended up stabbing me.

“I was just leaving the kitchen and heard rattling in the knife draw and she stabbed me in the back with the kitchen knife.”

The attack left Mr Punchon with a puncture wound to his lower back.

Hussey also attacked Mr Punchon’s current partner during a row in October 2006.

She was given a probation order by magistrates.

Mr Punchon also claimed Hussey had talked about her grandmother’s wealth.

He said she told him Mrs Garbutt was worth more than £100,000 in addition to her Mirfield cottage.

He told the court Hussey had mentioned losing the money if Mrs Garbutt needed to go into a care home.

“I remember on one occasion her saying it would be ideal if she just fell down the stairs,” he added.

“She also told me she had money stashed away in a lot of different accounts and (she) didn’t want to lose it by her (Mrs Garbutt) going into a home.”

The court also saw CCTV footage which captured Hussey’s movements in the hours leading up to the murder.

She was seen driving to and from the Mirfield home of Mrs Garbutt on three occasions.

At 22.47 on Sunday, May 6, last year, she was captured on camera driving along the Bradford ring road heading towards the victim’s home.

At 2.19am on Monday, May 7, she was seen driving along the same road.

A short while later, at 5.17am, she made the journey for the final time.

While back at home, it is alleged she washed the 2.8kg metal spade covered in her grandmother’s blood, possibly in the bath, as diluted blood was found by forensic experts hours later.

Gillian Fielding-Bell, a neighbour of Mrs Garbutt for 25 years, was the first person to be told of her death when Hussey knocked on her door at 9.15am on May 7.

Mrs Fielding-Bell told the court: “I heard someone on the pebbles outside my house and looked out and thought ‘Blimey she’s (Hussey) coming here. When I opened the door she just spilled it out.

“She said: ‘I knew there was something wrong because when I went up the path the front door was open and the porch light was on. I couldn’t find grandma so I went upstairs and there was blood everywhere. I tried to move her and I got blood on my hands and had to wash it off.’ ”

Mrs Fielding-Bell called for an ambulance as Hussey sat smoking. She described Hussey as being “very agitated”.

Paramedic Basharat Rafiq was the first person on the scene at 9.19am.

He entered the house with Hussey and saw Mrs Garbutt lying in her bed covered in blood.

Mr Rafiq said: “I was taken aback. I’d never seen anything like it in all my career.

“She (Hussey) was standing behind me all the time. She kept saying: ‘They’re going to think its me because I’ve got my DNA on her’. She kept on saying it throughout.”

Hussey was arrested on suspicion of murder hours later. Prof Peter Vanezis conducted the post mortem on Mrs Garbutt’s body.

He found more than 25 internal and external injuries, including broken ribs, cuts up to 8in, bruises more than 19in long, a broken facial skeleton and blood in her airpipes.

He also believed the culprit would have knelt on Mrs Garbutt’s body during the ferocious attack as the pensioner attempted to defend herself.

Mrs Garbutt suffered acute brain injuries as a result of the attack.

Prof Vanezis gave the cause of death as multiple injuries.

Forensic scientist Elizabeth Harris found spots of Mrs Garbutt’s blood on Hussey’s clothing and shoes and on the spade.

Ms Harris said some effort was made by the culprit to clean the murder weapon then dig it in the ground to make it dirty.

Hussey claims voices in her head told her to get rid of “bad people” which led her to killing her kind-hearted grandmother.

The former Royal Mail worker denies murder but admits the manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The case continues.