Police outside Fort Crescent in Margate after James Heddington died

by Paul Hooper

A pregnant Margate woman stabbed her lover to death after the pair argued about who the father of her children was, a court heard today.

Sarah Ripley, 21, was expecting twins at the time of the stabbing of her partner James Heddington in September last year.

Ripley, of Fort Crescent, is on trial at Canterbury Crown Court accused of murdering the 29-year-old drug addict. She has denied the charge.

Prosecutor Oliver Saxby QC told the jury today how the couple's relationship had deteriorated – and Ripley was also facing a jail sentence for burglary.

She was wanted by the police when she made a call to the emergency services saying Mr Heddington was bleeding to death from a stab wound to his stomach.

Ripley was asked: "Who did this?" and she replied: "I don't know. I just got back here and found him like that."

Officers arrested her and took her to the police station, where Ripley is alleged to have smuggled a mobile inside her cell in her bra.

Mr Saxby claimed she then made a call to a friend telling them: "I'm in big trouble."

The prosecutor alleged she later "changed tack", claiming the father-of-two had stabbed himself.

He told the jury: "As of late their relationship had begun to sour. It is plain there were a number of factors, first of all Mr Heddington was a drugs user and had been for a very long time.

"So long in fact, that his family had begun to despair of him and the kind of erratic and disruptive - and at times – aggressive behaviour so often linked to serious drugs use."

Mr Saxby claimed Ripley had also lived "a chaotic existence" in the life she shared with her lover.

"Two volatile characters then and there were also two significant additional pressures at play," he said. "First of all Ripley was five months' pregnant with twins. She has since had them delivered.

"The twins apparently were Mr Heddington's, though it seems he harboured doubts about this."

He also said Ripley had failed to turn up at Canterbury Crown Court for two burglaries – and an arrest warrant had been issued.

Mr Saxby added: "Plainly, the offences involved were serious ones likely to attract an immediate custodial sentence – in spite of the fact she was pregnant."

He told the jury that on the day of the stabbing, Mr Heddington had been borrowing phones from a number of people because he had "lost" Ripley.

The two had a number of arguments before meeting up for a drink at the Rose In June, in Margate, where Ripley appeared drunk.

A short while later, Mr Heddington borrowed another person's phone and during a row with Ripley threatened to go to Margate station and jump in front of a train, the court heard.

The trial, which is expected to last four weeks, continues.