A WOMAN killed her mum by plunging a kitchen carving knife into her back before emerging from the house covered in blood and telling police 'what have I done?'

Jessica Crane denies the murder of her 'defenceless' mother, 69-year-old Janet Mason, after she stabbed the carving knife into her back, cutting through a rib, a lung and through her heart.

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The 50-year's trial got underway at Worcester Crown Court yesterday following the fatal stabbing which took place at the defendant's 90-year-old grandmother's address (the victim's mother's address) in Green Lane, Worcester on March 9 last year. The 'confused and shaken' elderly woman was in the house with her daughter when she died and as police and paramedics battled, in vain, to revive her.

Crane of Hillside Close, Worcester could be seen crying and dabbing her eyes with a tissue, surrounded in the dock by officers and medical personnel, as details of the alleged murder were read out.

Richard Atkins QC, prosecuting opened the case to the jury, saying how it was Crane who called 999 at 10.41am, telling call handlers she had just attacked her mother.

"She said on the call she was not well. She said she had stabbed her mother and she thought her mother was dead," said Mr Atkins.

Mr Atkins showed the jury the knife, still stained with blood, which was in a clear plastic cylinder. The black-handled knife was described as being 30cm in length with a 25cm blade

"You will see that it has blood on it. Please, when you get to look at it, do not take it out of the sealed container," he said.

He added: "She had plunged that knife into her mother's back, through her ribcage, through her heart to a depth of 20.5cm - that's eight inches in old money. The wound was fatal."

The prosecution case is that Crane intended to cause her mother, at the very least, serious injury 'and, in all likelihood intended in that moment to kill her'.

"What else could you intend if you plunge a large knife in someone's back to that depth?" he said.

He said the jury would have to decide whether she was suffering from any mental health problems which reduce her culpability such as they could find she was not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.

Officers arrived at the address at around 10.45am. "They found the defendant outside the property holding her hands out in front of her. They were covered in blood" said the prosecutor.

Crane told officers she had had 'a fallout with my mum - I have attacked her with a knife'.

Mr Atkins said Crane told officers the knife was in the kitchen.

However, 'it wasn't' and instead officers found it in the shrubbery in the back garden of the house. Crane had a cut on her right thumb.

The defendant was initially arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent because it was not known at that stage that Mrs Mason could not be saved.

Crane was reported by one officer to say 'what have I done?' but Crane later said she could not remember saying that.

The defendant's 90-year-old grandmother, Edith Cockell, the mother of the stab victim, was in the house at the time, described as being 'confused and shaken'.

Mr Atkins said: "Officers entered the premises and went into the lounge where they found Mrs Mason, face down with her head on the cushion of an armchair, her body over the arm of the chair and her knees on the floor. She was unresponsive with no pulse. She did not appear to be breathing and her eyes had rolled back into her head. There was a large amount of blood on the back of her head and on the armchair and floor."

Because of her frailty and limited mobility, officers were unable to remove Mrs Cockell from the property. They moved her to the kitchen, but she remained present whilst officers and paramedics tried, unsuccessfully, to treat her daughter Janet Mason.

Visible on Mrs Mason's back was a 2cm to 3cm stab wound, just below her shoulder blade to the right of the spinal column. Efforts were made to save her by officers and paramedics but she was pronounced dead at 11.15am.

Mrs Cockell said her daughter Janet had been at the address to clean for her and had seen that Jessica 'wasn't looking very well'.

"Jessica had gone into the kitchen with her mother Janet and then Edith heard a scream. Janet had come into the living room and said 'get an ambulance' before collapsing in the chair that she was found in by the police. Edith Cockell did not know what had happened in the kitchen" said Mr Atkins.

Stab marks were found on the wall of a bedroom in Crane's grandmother's house where Crane stayed. Wallpaper was also found on the floor.

Mr Atkins said four fifths of the blade went into Mrs Mason's back and that a rib was also damaged by the blade. "This was not a gentle stab. This required considerable force," he said.

He told the jury there had been no defensive injuries. "She did not see this attack coming. She was stabbed in the back. She was unarmed. She was defenceless" said Mr Atkins.

Two days before the stabbing Crane had asked a neighbour for rope and a petrol can which he had assumed was for towing a car. Crane's phone, seized by police, also revealed searches including 'how to end your life', 'what causes carbon monoxide poisoning at home?', 'strong rope', 'will God forgive me?' and 'how do people commit suicide in prison'.

Her notebooks were also seized. One entry read: "Dark thoughts. Hurt my mother."

The trial continues.