ROAD-rage jailbird Tracie Andrews has sensationally confessed she DID stab her fiance to death.
Andrews, 30, always claimed Lee Harvey, 25, was murdered by mystery attackers. But in a bombshell letter she now admits: “I lied.
“I took the knife. I lost all control. I saw his eyes go to the back of his head. I felt the wetness on my hands.”
BLONDE Tracie Andrews has laid bare every shattering detail of her bloodbath killing of handsome fiance Lee Harvey.
In a testimony never heard at her trial where she was jailed for life despite pleading her innocence, she recounts second by second the roadside bust-up leading to a crime that stunned the nation.
In also sparked a manhunt for the “killers” that Andrews had invented to cover her tracks. In a blaze of publicity she lied that two men had chased their car for two miles along country lanes.
Now in a letter send from jail and shown to the News of the World, remorseful Andrews reveals:
In her description of the night in December 1996, Andrews, who lived with Lee at Alvechurch, Cheshire, confesses that they had a row about her ex-lover Andy Tilston, the father of her daughter. They were on their way home after a night at a pub.
She writes: “I told Lee to stop the car. I would rather walk home, he did this, I got out. Lee drove off, he then reversed back and shouted at me to get in the car.
“I was being stubborn and wouldn't get in. He swore at me and drove off again. As I reached the house where the incident happened, Keepers Cottage I think is the name, Lee was waiting in the car, again shouting at me to get in.
“I told him it was over and I wanted my keys to the flat. Lots of nasty, nasty things were said, he wouldn't give me the keys to my flat. I told him I would call the police.”
Andrews then claims the argument reached boilng point. Lee accused her of sleeping with other men. She taunted him about her ex-lover. It was as this point, she says, that Lee got out of the car and pulled a knife. “I was crying,” she says. “He came straight up to me and grabbed my hair. He said, ‘See if Andy wants you with a ****ed-up face.’ He had a knife and I was scared.
”With that I kneed him, he fell down and pulled me down too, then he grabbed me and pulled me, we fell over to the grass verge opposite the car. He hit me, I fell back. I got up and tried to hit him back.
“We was shouting at each other all the time, he punched me again, I fell. I saw the knife on the floor, picked it up and when he went for me again I just reacted with the knife. I must have stabbed him then he stood still and shouted ‘You ****ing bitch,‘ then hit me so hard I fell again. I got up halfway and all I can remember is seeing red. I just went mad.”
Lee's body was later found with 35 stab wounds to his head, neck and body.
Andrews continues in her letter: “Everything went like slow motion. I was shaking and had lost all control, all the abuse I had suffered and all the nasty things that had been thrown in my face, the way he had openly admitted to hating my relationship with my daughter and the fact that he had held the knife to me and was going to either slash my face or stab me, had just come to a head. I have never ever in my whole life lost control like I did this night ... I was going to be sick. I felt faint.
“I was so scared, I wen tback over to Lee and tried talking, shaking him. I could hear him breathing in a bad way, I saw his eyes go to the back of his head, I could smell this awful smell and I felt the wetness on my hands. I went over to the car, holding on to the car door I think!
“I knew he was in a very bad way. I was on adrelalin and was trying to think straight. I knew I had to end my own life, how could I live with myself?
I knew the police would take me away. I was so scared and there was my boyfriend, who I loved, lying in the road because of the stupid fight that had got out of hand.
“My whole life had ended. I think deep down I knew he wasn't alive. I went back over to Lee, he wasn't breathing. I knew I had to make it look as though we had been attacked.”
It was at this point she set about covering her tracks.
She now admits: “I got back up and went to the car driver's side. I saw the case for the knife on the seat, I picked it up — and the black hat from down the side of the door. I threw down the hat, and picked up the knife, put it in the case and put it down my trousers.
“I went over to Lee and knelt down, took off my coat and put it over him. I was then hugging him and crying, shaking and thinking, ‘What have I done, what have I done?’
“I heard someone, so I shouted for help. A man came over from the house. I told him we had been attacked. He then went off and came back with a torch. As it shone, I saw how bad Lee's neck was! I felt so sick, so ashamed, so scared, so very, very sorry. I hated myself and just wanted to die!
“I went numb. I saw something shining on the floor and picked it up. It was a piece of the knife.
“The man then went to the house to get help, blankets. I put the piece of metal in the case and then back down my trousers.
“I was in a state of shock as the ambulance came. I had been on adrenalin and now it was wearing off. All I wanted to do was go to sleep and not wake up, turn back time. I wanted Lee to get up and say he was all right, but I knew nothing was going to happen.
“I just wanted to die. I was holding on to Lee telling him I was sorry. Why did he have to push me to do it? I was shaking and I wouldn't leave him!
“They took me into a house. I made up a story about us being attacked. I went to the hospital, I flushed the knife down the toilet.
“I was told that Lee had died. I went to the police station, I made the statement, I made it up as I went along trying to remember what I had told the police beforehand. I wasn't in the right frame of mind. Why I didn't just tell the truth I don't know, scared of what would happen to me.
“I couldn't let my family, Lee's family, know what I had done. I hated myself so much. I still do.”
As police launched their search for the bogus killers, the country united in grief and sympathy for Lee and Tracie. But living the lie took its toll on Andrews. She tried to commit suicide shortly after appearing in a televised press conference.
In her sensational letter, she now says: “I did the press conference. I wanted to die before doing that but I didn't have the chance. I waited until early morning and went to my flat. I got every tablet I could find. At my mother's house I got all her tablets.
“I wrote some notes as best I could to my family and my daughter.
I told my mum a little later I was going for a lie down, I took all the tablets along with the ones the doctor had given to me. It was a serious attempt to end my life.”
When police interviewed Andrews in hospital she came close to cracking.
“I was watched 24 hours a day in the hospital and the police came to interview me.” she writes. “I just couldn't bring myself to tell the truth. I was petrified, and felt so alone. All through questioning I kept to the story I had told at my first interview.
!I hearly did say what happened and asked to speak to my solicitor but I again couldn't bring myself to let it out! I knew I had to, but I couldn't. Then, at home on bail. I tried to again take an overdose, this time hoping that something would happen.
“My family, Lee's family, were going through a nightmare. How could I be the one to say, 'This is what happened — Lee was either going to slash my face or stab me, but I got the knife and it was me who killed him'. Please God tell me, how do you ever come to terms with something like this?”
Wallowing in her difficulty at baring her soul in a letter, she adds: “This is very difficult for me to do. I tried to block everything out for so long hoping that the pain will go away. The more I keep things bottled up inside the worse I'm making myself feel.
“I know that at the time I was ill. I was scared, I have been riddled with guilt over so many things. I made such a terrible mistake which I feel was forced upon me to do. I was in a no-win situation I flipped and what happened next I will have to live with for the rest of my life.
“As so Lee's family, my family, most of all my daughter and Lee's daughter. They have each lost a parent — even if they are in a different context.
“I tried to take my own life because i just could not accept what I had done. I still feel that way at times. I have to think about the pain I will put my family through if I give in, they have suffered enough.
“I have been a stranger to myself for so long, I only hope I can find myself again. Maybe if I face my fears I will begin to find myself. I know I have a very long road ahead of me. I know I have to go through so much before I can gain release.
“I know I have to be punished for what I have done. I do feel I should have been convicted of manslaughter (provocation). I should have told the truth in the first place and used my defence. However, I know that the main people who could come forward to help me were Lee's friends.
“I know people will not speak ill of the dead, they would never have helped my case. I needed their evidence but I knew I would not be able to get it. Lee was a Jekyll and Hyde character, I'm not saying I was perfect in the relationship, I did have my moods at times, but everything was so exaggerated about me at the trial.
“My mother told me Lee wasn't right for me due to his immaturity and jealously. They say love is blind and it is.”
Despite her lies to the press and to the court, Andrews still went down. She was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court in 1997, after a jury unanimously found her guilty of killing Lee.
Throughout her trail Andrews had stuck adamantly to her story and wore Lee's engagement ring in the dock.
But forensic scientists presented one of her boots as evidence. The lining was bloostained and it was suggested she had hidden the knife in there — even though she now insists it was down her trousers.
In October last year Andrews even had the audacity to appeal against the conviction. Her lawyers claimed she did not receive a fair trial because of the adverse publicity surronding the case.
This time she caused outrage by dressing up for the hearing in a figure-hugging white polo neck and split skirt.
Despite the lawyer's claims, Lord Justice Roch, sitting with two other judges, declared: “The conclusion we have reached is there is nothing unsafe in her conviction.”
Now her admission proves they were absolutely right.
TRACIE Andrews told lie upon lie when her fiance was stabbed to death.
She lied to the police, she lied on TV and she lied to the courts.
Time and money were wasted looking for the mystery man she blamed.
Now Tracie has cracked and admitted she killed Lee Harvey — but complains she should have received a shorter sentence for manslaughter, instead of life for murder.
And the irony is that she has nobody to blame but herself, and her lies.