A 42-YEAR-OLD woman texted her boyfriend's daughter and pretended he was still alive, even though he was dead in a box inside her bedroom, the Old Bailey heard today.

Karen Otmani, of Stanstead Road, Forest Hill, told the jury she unintentionally suffocated her lover Shaun Corey with a pillow last June before eventually hiding his body in a wheelie bin.

Otmani, dressed in a black hoodie and with short bleached blonde hair, had stormed out of the witness box earlier today but returned for cross-examination this afternoon.

After Mr Corey's death on June 4, Otmani sent messages to his daughter on June 10, making out he was still alive, the court heard.

One message read: "I'm worried about the drug and booze side of it, but he can look after himself. I think I'll just leave him for a bit. That usually works. LOL."

Otmani told the jury: "She kept asking where he was and I couldn't turn around and say 'your father's dead downstairs'."

Prosecutor Bobbie Cheema asked why, the morning after Mr Corey's death, Otmani sent a text message to another lover of hers saying: "It's a beautiful day isn't it?"

Otmani replied: "Do you see anything wrong with that?"

Ms Cheema said: "I might, if I was in your situation."

As the afternoon wore on, Otmani repeatedly said she was fed-up with the questioning.

At one point she burst out: "I killed my boyfriend. I'm sorry, I killed my boyfriend, I killed him with a pillow. I never meant to, I just wanted him to be quiet. Are you happy?"

Otmani claims Mr Corey abused her during their relationship, even raping her while she was unconscious and filming it on his phone, but she denies murdering him.

Friend Bernard Beddoe, aged 60, of Revelon Road, Brockley, also denies murder and assisting an offender.

The trial continues.