A WOMAN Hell's Angel accused of a Hallowe'en killing in which she wore a Scream mask, gave evidence at a murder trial on Tuesday.

Heather Stephenson-Snell, aged 46, is alleged to have meticulously planned the killing of her ex boyfriend's new lover, even taking shooting lessons, planning escape routes and devising disguises.

The prosecution at Manchester Crown Court allege that she turned up outside the Holland Street home of Diane Lomax wearing the Hallowe'en mask with the intention of killing her.

But instead she gunned down neighbour Robert Wilkie, aged 43, when he went out to investigate noises he heard.

Stephenson-Snell, of Crombie Avenue, York, denies murdering Mr Wilkie and the attempted murder of Ms Lomax. She also pleaded not guilty to a third charge, an alternative to the attempted murder indictment of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life. Giving evidence in her own defence for the first time on the seventh day of her trial, Stephenson-Snell, gave her account of the events leading up to the death of Mr Wilkie and details of her relationship with a man described in court as her former boyfriend Adrian Sinclair.

Stephenson-Snell told the court she originally employed Mr Sinclair as a caretaker at her York home to look after her two rottweiler dogs.

She denied they had ever been lovers, and claimed that she had only sent him sexually explicit letters from New York, where she was attending a screen writing course, because he had told her a gay friend was pestering him.

In planning for the nine week course in the USA, she had advertised for someone to act as caretaker for her York home, from where she also ran the York Psychotherapy Clinic. She took on Mr Sinclair, and told the court theirs remained an employer-employee relationship. Stephenson-Snell said: "Initially when he first came he'd make stupid remarks and sexual innuendos, but they were so immature I didn't really take them seriously.

"I found him a bit irritating to be honest, and I stayed out of his way. He made inappropriate remarks, and he would be quite argumentative at times."

After one row she said he "stormed out" of the house and began making abusive phone calls to her. But he later apologised and she took him back in.

Shortly before her trip to America in August 2002 she decided he was not responsible enough to be left in charge of the house and her two dogs, who she said she "regarded as children".

After another row Mr Sinclair left and returned to Radcliffe, where he has family, but Stephenson-Snell said they parted on good terms and he tracked her phone number down in America and would ring her.

While she was staying with friends in Miami she learned one of her dogs Sammy had gone missing.

Stephenson-Snell said: "I was very, very distressed. Panic stricken. It was like my whole world had just stood still." She told the court that she flew home from the United States on October 31, 2002, and Mr Sinclair collected her from Leeds Bradford Airport.

Stephenson-Snell said Mr Sinclair gave her a cup of coffee from a flask.

"Twenty minutes into the journey I felt as though I had been drugged," she said. On returning home she went to lie down in the caravan parked in the garden which she used as a bedroom.

She said that Mr Sinclair then came into the caravan, pinned her down and raped her, and she was unable to resist because of her drugged state.

She added that before he left the caravan he told her about Sammy.

"He indicated that he had the dog and that if I went to the police he would kill him," said Stephenson-Snell.

She claimed she did not tell anyone about the rape because she was scared about the dog.

"I was also in a state of shock. I was trying to get my head round the whole thing," she said.

The next morning Mr Sinclair left the house and she said he immediately began "bombarding" her with phone calls threatening to kill her or firebomb her house if she went to the police.

Proceeding