MURDER-ACCUSED Adam Whelehan gave evidence today claiming Swanley Village stabbing victim Natalie Jarvis “lunged at him” with a weapon the night she died.

Whelehan, 23, of Roseberry Gardens, Sidcup, who was working as a trainee BT engineer at the time, kept a multi-tool in the glove compartment of his car.

Maidstone Crown Court heard him claim 23-year-old Miss Jarvis used the weapon to attack him, although he admitted his memory of the night was “patchy”.

He said: “I don’t know how many times she lunged at me with the multi-tool before I was actually cut.

“I remember managing to grasp hold of it and there was a struggle and the next thing I knew she was crawling on the floor.

"Natalie was a lot bigger and stronger than me. I was scared. She was trying to hurt me, if not kill me.

“I was trying to get her off me. I was struggling and then don’t know what happened then.

“I just remember her falling down the bank and into the road."

Wearing a black jumper and grey trousers in the witness box, Whelehan said his actions after the incident were motivated by “panic” and “shock”.

He said: “My head was a mess, thinking what has happened.

“I didn’t think. I just panicked.”

Whelehan described getting back into his car, by which point co-accused Thomas Fuller was in the driver’s seat.

He said: “I remember having the multi-tool there and it was in my lap and I was cleaning my wound. There was blood everywhere.”

When asked by defence counsel Sasha Wass QC where the multi-tool was now, Whelehan said he had “no idea”.

Whelehan said he had received numerous death threats from Miss Jarvis and was worried when he went to meet her on October 3 that it might be a “set-up”.

He said: “I thought I would get hurt. She said she was capable of getting other people to do it."

Whelehan added that Miss Jarvis had also made a threat against his sister.

He said: “She made a threat against my sister Emma. She was going on about how I’m always going out drinking.

“She was saying that I need to make her and the baby a priority. She said ‘If you don’t, something could happen to your sister as well.'

“She made a comment saying she knew where she worked.

“Any time she didn’t get her own way, she would kick off and say she would put stuff on Facebook.”

Speaking about his state of mind in the months leading up to Miss Jarvis's death, he said: “I was quite depressed. It was just getting too much. I didn’t have any time to myself.”

The court also heard Whelehan’s prepared statement to the police issued on October 4 when he described Miss Jarvis as “a woman possessed”.

In the statement, he added: “It was her or me.”

Whelehan has admitted killing Miss Jarvis, who he had been seeing since the summer, in "lawful self defence".

The prosecution alleges Whelehan murdered her because he "wanted out of the relationship and the only way out he could see was to kill her".

It is also alleged Fuller, of Oakley Drive, Eltham, also 23, was the "getaway driver".

The court has heard Whelehan picked up Miss Jarvis from her home with friend Fuller hiding in the boot of his car at about 10.30pm on October 3 last year.

He drove to a country lane car park in Swanley Village before getting out with Miss Jarvis about 10.50pm and "by the time he returned to the car, then driven by Fuller, she lay dead".

Miss Jarvis was found dead on the ground in Swanley Village Road after suffering more than 20 stab wounds.

Whelehan and Fuller deny murder.

The trial continues.