A WOMAN deliberately drove a car into a victim before her boyfriend jumped from the vehicle and dramatically plunged a knife into the man's heart, a jury has been told.

Victoria Quinton ploughed a black Vauxhall Astra into the man on Nine Mile Ride on November 5 and boyfriend Oliver Allerton proceeded to confront the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Ahead of the trial Allerton, of no fixed abode, and Quinton, of Helmsdale, Bracknell, denied murder, and the jury heard the outline of the case at Reading Crown Court.

The deadly confrontation was said to have followed a £2,000 drugs debt owed by Allerton to his victim.

Matters finally spiralled out of control when the 27-year-old stabbed the man and left him for dead, Judge Heather Norton heard.

Allerton frantically jumped back in the vehicle driven by his then 20-year-old girlfriend, who could not yet drive and struggled to flee the scene.

The court heard that police and paramedics rushed to the scene after receiving reports of the horrific incident and desperately attempted to resuscitate the victim, but he died of his injuries soon after.

A post-mortem examination later found he died of a single stab wound to the heart and had suffered a number of additional wounds, apparently sustained in self-defence.

The court was told that Allerton and Quinton had since fled the scene and their abandoned vehicle was recovered just over one mile away in Bramley Grove, Crowthorne.

The court heard that Allerton was later seen by a witness at a house where he took refuge in a panic and frantically saying: “What am I going to do? I may have killed someone.”

They were both charged with murder days later, on November 8.

David Etherington QC sought to paint a more complex picture of events in his defence of Allerton.

He added: “We suggest the issue is whether it is now about a debt owed by Mr Allerton. On the day in question, why are they all there? Who is attacking who, and for what reason? The issues surrounding that are going to be extremely important.

“The issue is whether he was in defence - who had the knife? Is it the defendant? Is it the victim? Who is attacking who? Is the victim attacking Mr Allerton? Where are they when the knife going into the victim? Was it inside the car, or outside it?

“Was this a deliberate unlawful incident, acting in self-defence - or an accident? Mr Allerton’s case will be there was a struggle for the knife - and the victim dropped the knife into the car and Allerton struck him from inside. That is the issue, say the defence.”

Kate Bex QC argued the nature of evidence suggested Quinton could not possibly be convicted for murder.

She said: “It seems the victim has died from a knife he has brought with him - and because of evidence from the prosecution, experts who examined the damage were satisfied it was not a high speed collision.

“The victim was at the back of his own car arming himself... she was 20 years old, she was not a qualified driver and had not passed her test.”

The trial continues.