A woman accused of trying to murder her elderly next-door neighbour with a kitchen knife told detectives she was not a "Norman Bates" character, a Court heard.

Mother-of-three Sharon Sadik, 39, made reference to the Psycho film character in a statement read at her trial at Leeds Crown Court where she is accused of attempting to murder her next door neighbour, 78-year-old Marjorie Binner.

Sadik, of Barmby Road, Undercliffe, Bradford, who also faces alternative charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and aiding and abetting her neighbour to attempt suicide, has pleaded not guilty.

In a statement read to jurors at Leeds Crown Court, Miss Binner, who now lives in a Bradford nursing home, said she woke up in bed on October 9 last year to see someone with a plastic bag over their head, brandishing a large knife.

She said when the bag fell off she could see it was Sadik, who referred to her housebound neighbour as ''mum'' and regularly looked after her by putting her to bed, doing her shopping and cooking meals.

Miss Binner was taken to hospital with stab wounds to her stomach and shoulder after Sadik called the emergency services, telling them she had stabbed her neighbour, the jury has heard.

A transcript of Sadik's subsequent interviews with police was read to the jury yesterday afternoon.

Jurors heard that when Miss Binner's version of events, claiming that she would never consider committing suicide, had been put to Sadik and she had been asked what had gone wrong with her, she had replied: "Nothing went wrong with me - I'm not Norman Bates.

"It's not Pyscho or anything like that. I loved that old lady.''

The jury heard that Sadik had told detectives she had gone next door after hearing Miss Binner call for her to help "end it all for her'' over an intercom she had had installed.

She said her intention was to call her neighbour's bluff and presented her with the knife and plastic bag, saying: "Here you are, if you want to do it, take your pick.

"She picked up the knife and said 'I can't finish it. Finish it for me, Sharon'.

"I put the knife into her twice but not very deeply and then thought I can't do this.

"I said I was going to call the police and ambulance and she banged down on my hand while the knife was still in it. It seemed to go in very deep.

"She wanted me to finish her off but I couldn't go through with it.''

The trial continues.

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