A jury trying the case of a Hitchin woman accused of murdering her half-sister with a chicken-shaped casserole pot in Letchworth today heard from the victim through video evidence.

The six women and five men at Luton Crown Court were shown a police interview with Nicola ‘Nicki’ Collingbourne, who was questioned in October last year after defendant Yvonne Caylor, 53, complained of being assaulted.

Ms Caylor, of Grove Road in Hitchin, is alleged by the prosecutor John Price QC to have disguised herself as a man by wearing a costume beard, wig, heavy-framed glasses and hi-vis jacket before going to her 26-year-old half-sister’s flat in Ivel Cout and killing her on May 23.

The prosecution case is that the motive for murder goes back to October 3 last year, when Nicki evicted Ms Caylor from the flat after a row.

In the interview on October 4, 2015, Nicki said that her half-sister had been saying with her, but had been due to leave – and that during a row on October 3 Ms Caylor had thrown Nicki’s iPad from over head height and smashed it on the floor.

“I was trying to keep calm,” Nicki was shown telling an officer.

“It became worse and worse. She was just lashing out with her fists. She was pinning me against a wall, saying: ‘I am going to kill you’.

“I took her stuff to the front door. She got a mop. She said: ‘I am going to ram this down your throat.’ It fell on the floor.

“She picked up my iPad and threw it on the floor. She grabbed her laptop and walked out.

“I got her out and slammed the door. She was beating on the door trying to get back in.”

Nicki denied striking out at Ms Caylor or grabbing her by the neck, saying: “I had no intention to hurt her. I have never intended to.”

The officer read a statement from Yvonne Caylor in which she said Nicki became aggressive if she did not get her own way.

Ms Caylor alleged in that statement that Nicki was ‘banging and crashing around’ because she could not find her medicine and had grabbed her hair, pushed her against a wall and twisted her wrist.

Nicki denied all this, saying: “I am telling nothing but the truth.”

When released from custody, Nicki returned home with an officer and found she had been burgled.

In a statement, she said: “I have helped Yvonne and she has done this to me.”

The prosecution alleges that Ms Caylor burgled the flat while Nicki was in custody, then attempted to pervert the course of justice.

Ms Caylor pleaded not guilty to both charges at Cambridge Crown Court on April 8, and was set to stand trial in the eight weeks starting on May 23 – the day of Nicki’s death.

The case continues. Ms Caylor denies murder.