Knife attack by topless flatmate ‘was self-defence’

A WOMAN told a court how she tied a dressing gown cord round her housemate’s eyes and neck before arming herself with a knife, walking topless into his room then stabbing him to death.

Eliska Novotna admitted striking Arunas Ramanauskas with the blade up to six times.

But she denies murdering the Lithuanian – claiming she was acting in self-defence as she feared being the victim of a sex attack.

Yesterday, Novotna, 23, told the High Court in Dundee that she started drinking around 10am on 7 October last year.

She had moved in with Mr Ramanauskas six days earlier as she looked for accommodation closer to Glenrath Farm, near Peebles, where both worked.

She said they continued to drink and watched a DVD in Mr Ramanauskas’s room.

Novotna claimed he started touching her on the arms and shoulders – and that she had asked him to stop. Then she said he took off some of her clothes and started touching her. She told the court she was shy and with his help tied a dressing gown cord around his eyes and neck. She said: “I went to the kitchen and took the knife and placed it in the rear pocket of my trousers because I was scared.”

Then she said she went back upstairs, half naked, to his room.

Defence QC Jim Keegan asked: “People will wonder why you went back upstairs?”

She replied: “I wanted to get my clothes.”

Novotna said that Mr Ramanauskas then tried to push her into a position to carry out a sex act.

She said: “The knife was in the pocket of my trousers. I stabbed him six times. It all happened fast. It was the only way of protecting myself.”

The trial continues.