‘Love triangle’ murder accused Louise Grieve told jurors of her relationship with her younger lover: “If we weren’t f***ing, we were just sleeping.”

The 38-year-old is said by prosecutors to have been part of a plan to kill her partner Keith Green.

Mr Green, 40, was stabbed to death in his garden at 42 Howard Road, Banbury, by Grieve’s younger lover, Mark Meadows, 25, and his 20-year-old half-brother Travis Gorton, jurors at Oxford Crown Court have been told.

READ MORE: The knives prosecutors claim were used to stab Keith Green

On Monday morning, Grieve was quizzed by prosecutor Vanessa Marshall KC about a series of messages sent between Meadows and his brother Gorton in the months leading up to the alleged murder.

They included the older brother’s concern about ‘threats’ that had got him ‘paranoid to f***’.

“Can’t walk away. I love her too much and even if I did it still wouldn’t be the end of it,” he is said to have told Gorton.

Asked what those ‘threats’ were, Grieve told Ms Marshall she could not answer the question as the message was sent between two others.

She had Meadows had stopped talking about things that were ‘stressing’ them out. “If we weren’t f***ing we were just sleeping,” she added.

The jury heard that the pair had also watched films, Meadows had cooked for them and they had visited 'quiet' places.

A question about the central heating system in Meadows’ Rees Court flat, which Grieve said she had operated for him, prompted Ms Marshall to accuse her of ‘doing everything’, being ‘instrumental’ and ‘manipulating’.

“I must be a bloody magician to be able to do all that,” the defendant replied.

READ MORE: Prosecution question accused Louise Grieve

She was asked about the purchase of a blue knife, which the prosecution allege was one of two used to murder Mr Green, during a trip she made with Meadows last summer into ‘Fantasia’, a ‘fantasy’-themed gift shop in Leeds.

Grieve said: “I just liked the knife because it was blue and it stuck out from the rest.” She already had a knife at home, which she used for whittling pieces of wood.

“Why did you let Mark buy two knives?” Ms Marshall asked for the Crown.

The defendant replied: “He’s a grown man. If he wants to buy something I can’t stop him.”

She said she was unaware that Meadows had apparently tried to access the Dark Web to look for sites through which he could purchase guns.

Meadows, of Rees Court, Banbury, Gorton, of Well Bank, Hook Norton, Grieve and her son Callum Johnson, of Howard Road, Banbury, and a youth all deny murder.

Meadows and Gorton have also pleaded not guilty to possession of a bladed article. The trial continues.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward