Accused love triangle killer Michelle Taylor tried

Accused love triangle killer Michelle Taylor tried to seduce
her former lover just weeks after allegedly stabbing his young
wife to death, the Old Bailey heard.

Taylor, 20, is said to have carried out the frenzied attack
on bank clerk Alison Shaughnessy, 21, with her sister Lisa Taylor
as a ‘a dream solution’ to her tangled love life.

The victim’s husband John, who was having an affair with
Michelle before and after his marriage, told the court by chance
he met up with her in Ireland just two weeks after his wife’s
funeral there.

Mr Shaughnessy had attended a wedding after the funeral and
stayed in the same hotel as Michelle Taylor, who was visiting his
niece in Eire.

‘She wanted to sleep in my room.

She said there was no

accommodation left,’ he told the court.

‘It was all booked up so I agreed on one condition, that she
could just stay and that was it.

‘
Prosecutor Mr John Nutting asked: ‘Did she attempt to resume
your old relationship?’
Mr Shaughnessy replied: ‘She did, yes.

‘
‘Were you willing to resume it,’ asked counsel.

‘No,’ answered Mr Shaughnessy.

Earlier Mr Shaughnessy fought back the tears as he told how
he and Michelle found his wife’s horribly wounded body lying on
the stairs of his flat.

The lovers worked at the same clinic in Lambeth Road,
Bermondsey, and Taylor gave Mr Shaughnessy a lift home so she
could pick up some pots for the hospital flowers.

Some blooms were left over from the arrangements the pair
had done that night and Mr Shaughnessy was clutching a bouquet
for his wife as he opened the door and walked up the stairs.

‘As I came to the top of the first flight and as I turned I
saw Alison was lying there,’ he whispered.

‘I just flung the flowers and my briefcase aside.

I realised
she had been injured.

‘
Mr Shaughnessy said he dashed downstairs to use a neigh
bour’s telephone and Michelle ran across the road to raise the
alarm at a nearby pub.

‘She (Michelle) was just crying,’ he said.

The husband said he had tried to break off the affair with
Taylor, but she refused to accept it.

‘I made it clear I just wanted to be good friends.

She
agreed at first but she would always come back and be a bit
forward.

‘I just looked on her as a good friend.

I didn’t have any
strong feelings beyond that point.

‘
Tears welled in Mr Shaughnessy’s eyes as he added: ‘Alison I
loved.

‘ o73
Cross examined by Mr Richard Ferguson, QC, Mr Shaughnessy
said of Taylor: ‘I didn’t love her and that’s it.

‘

Asked if he had told Taylor he loved her Mr Shaughnessy
replied: ‘I may have done so once when I had a few drinks.

He said he had tried to end the relationship ‘about a month’
before his wife was murdered.

‘I suggested from time to time that she would be better off
having her own boyfriend,’ he claimed.

‘When did you say directly you were not going to sleep with
her again?’ asked counsel.

‘I didn’t say anything like that.

I just let her go,’ said
Mr Shaughnessy.

He agreed he had not postively ended the relationship or
told his wife Alison about the affair and quietly remarked:
‘Obviously that was my mistake.

‘
Mr Shaughnessy said he had no idea of the intensity of

Michelle’s feeling toward him and he never dreamed she had writ
ten in her diary of his wife ‘disappearing.

‘
He told the court he had not told the police of their affair
until two months after the murder because he did not think it
relevant.

The prosecution claim Michelle together with her 18-year-old
sister Lisa, lay in wait for Mrs Shaughnessy to return to her
flat in Vardens Road, Battersea.

The sisters allegedly made up an excuse to be let into the
flat then Michelle stabbed the pretty bank clerk 54 times.

Her injuries included 11 wounds to the throat her windpipe
had been slashed open.

There were also cuts to her thigh, groin and buttock.

The pair then left the flat and drove to the Churchill
Clinic where Michelle helped Mr Shaughnessy arrange the flowers
before driving him home, it is claimed.

Michelle’s intent to kill her rival was outlined in her
diarys, alleged Mr Nutting.

One entry stated: ‘I hate the unwashed bitch.

Mr dream

solution would be for Alison to disappear as if she never existed
and maybe I could give everything I want to the man I love.

‘
The sisters allegedly lied about their movements on the day

of the killing when questioned by police.

And Lisa’ fingerprints were found at the Shaughnessy’s flat
even though she told police said she had never been there.

Michelle Taylor who lived at the clinic and her sister of
Kemble Road, Forest Hill, deny murder on June 3 last year.

The trial continues.

ENDS
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