BRIDE-TO-BE Caroline Mawhood stabbed the father of her child through the heart, a murder trial heard.

Simon Gilchrist collapsed as he made a 999 call for help from a phone box outside their flat in Bell Farm Avenue, York, said William Lowe QC, prosecuting.

The trial at Leeds Crown Court was halted today when a juror became ill. Judge Paul Hoffman ordered a new trial which was expected to start this afternoon.

Earlier the court heard that Mr Gilchrist, 23, was declared dead in York Hospital, despite efforts to save him.

Eyewitnesses saw his fiance, mother-of-two Caroline Mawhood, follow him into the street outside their flat in Bell Farm Avenue, holding a six-inch bladed kitchen knife in her raised arm, alleged Mr Lowe.

She told them she had had enough and she could not take any more, the jury heard.

Mr Lowe alleged she was drunk and that she later told police at Fulford Road Police Station: "I love him, I cannot live without him," and: "He went for me. I have killed him."

Mawhood, 21, of Bell Farm Avenue, denies murder.

Her friend, Rebecca Adams, told the jury that earlier that evening, Mawhood had launched an unprovoked attack on Hannah Berry, who was sitting in The Marcia pub in Bishopthorpe.

She punched and slapped her and pulled her hair. Mawhood had consumed eight double Bacardis and coke, and was so drunk she could not walk in a straight line and was slurring her words.

In a statement read to the jury, recruitment assistant Miss Berry said she flung up her arms to protect her face and head against the rain of blows.

The attack, just after 11pm, left her bruised and in tears and so shaken she could not work the next day. She did not know who Mawhood was.

The court heard that the pub's landlady ordered Mawhood to leave.

Miss Adams had to help her to a waiting car. Mr Lowe alleged Mawhood had been drinking Lambrini wine before going to the pub, and was on anti-depressants.

Miss Adams told the jury that she and her boyfriend took Mawhood home and she helped her up the stairway to her flat. Mr Gilchrist was angry at her state and as Miss Adams left, she heard him shouting at Mawhood.

Mr Lowe said that Mawhood told police the following evening she could not remember what had happened in the flat.

The court heard a statement from Mr Gilchrist's mother, Josie Lannane, which said the couple had been together 18 months, and Mr Gilchrist was the father of her youngest child. She said the pair had been planning to marry.

Updated: 12:00 Tuesday, January 11, 2005