A YORK psychotherapist accused of gunning down a stranger in a Hallowe'en murder wept in the witness box as she claimed she was raped by her former dog sitter.

Jurors at Manchester Crown Court watched as Heather Stephenson-Snell broke down alleging Adrian Sinclair attacked her in a caravan at her home in Crombie Avenue home, Clifton, York.

Stephenson-Snell, 46, was recounting events leading to the death of Robert Wilkie, 43, from a single gunshot wound outside his home in Holland Street, Radcliffe, near Manchester, on November 1 last year.

The prosecution alleges Stephenson-Snell donned a Scream mask when she travelled to Lancashire, armed with a sawn-off shotgun, intending to kill Diane Lomax, Mr Sinclair's girlfriend. Instead, they claim, she killed Mr Wilkie after he confronted her.

At the start of her defence, Stephenson-Snell told the court she hired Mr Sinclair to look after her two Rottweilers, but denied his claims they had a sexual relationship.

She said after a few weeks she sacked him because she felt looking after her dogs was "too much of a responsibility for him".

On her return from a trip to America, in October 2002, when one of her dogs had gone missing, she claimed Mr Sinclair attacked her.

She told the court he, along with a friend, had picked her up from Leeds/Bradford airport and assaulted her in the caravan where she slept. She said she believed he had put something in her drink.

"About twenty minutes into the journey (from the airport) I started feeling as if I was drugged," she said.

Once in the caravan, she claimed: "The room was spinning, then I heard the door go. I looked up and it was Adrian.

"He said to me 'You think you are too good for anyone, don't you?' He took his clothes off. He approached me and held me down and raped me."

Stephenson-Snell said Mr Sinclair told her he had taken her dog and would kill it and send her a tape recording of it screaming if she contacted police. She did not report the rape allegation until she was arrested on suspicion of murdering Mr Wilkie. Earlier, Mr Sinclair denied the allegation.

Stephenson-Snell also confirmed she was the president of an all-female motorcycle club called Stuff The Ironing. But she denied Mr Sinclair's claims of "weird initiations".

Stephenson-Snell denies murdering Mr Wilkie and attempting to murder Ms Lomax. She also denies possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

The trial continues.

Updated: 10:50 Wednesday, September 15, 2004