A woman who claimed that her fiancé had been murdered in a “road rage” attack made up the story after stabbing him to death, a court heard yesterday.
Tracie Andrews, 27, who lived with Lee Harvey and her five-year-old daughter was portrayed as a volatile and sometimes violent person. The former model was charged on Thursday night with the murder of Mr Harvey. Looking pale and gaunt, she sat between two prison officers during the three-hour hearing at Redditch, Worcs.
Tim Robinson, her lawyer, said she denied the charge and stood by her original story. Reporting restrictions were lifted at Mr Robinson's request. Magistrates granted Andrews conditional bail but, when the court was told the prosecution would appeal against that decision, she was remanded in custody pending a crown court ruling.
She is expected to appear before a judge at Worcester Crown Court early next week. Throughout yesterday's hearing Andrews's mother, Irene, and stepfather, Alan Carter, sat at the rear of the court.
Mr Harvey, 25, an unemployed bus driver and the father of a five-year-old daughter by a previous relationship, died from multiple stab wounds in Coopers Hill, a country lane near Alvechurch, on Dec 1. Andrews, of Alvechurch, Worcs, told police he had been killed by a passenger in a car which had chased them. Kerry Moreton, prosecuting, said police believed this story to be untrue.
She said they suspected that there had been a row between the pair about a black woolly hat she had bought for him and which he may have rejected. Miss Moreton said: “There appears to have been a history of domestic violence between Miss Andrews and Mr Harvey, principally of violence by the defendant on the deceased.”
She told the court that there was evidence that Andrews had pulled a knife on a former boyfriend, the father of her daughter, and may also have done so on Mr Harvey. She had also hit Mr Harvey with a bottle, punched him in a nightclub and bitten his ear during rows, Miss Moreton said.
The court was told that, when police were called to the murder scene by people living nearby, they found Mr Harvey dead from 15 stab wounds, particularly about the neck. Miss Moreton said: “The carotid and jugular veins were severed. There were other wounds to the back of the scalp, upper arms and chest and facial scratches.” Andrews was nearby with her clothing heavily bloodstained.
Miss Moreton told the magistrates: “The prosecution ask you to deduce that she was the person who put the knife into the victim and that is how the spurting of the blood happened. There is also some hair found at the scene - a substantial clump of hair found on the victim's hand. It does appear to match the defendant's hair but the DNA results are not yet back.”
The prosecution also pointed to other factors which they said led to their belief that she was the murderer. They were that:
Miss Moreton said that police searches had produced no weapon but a blood-stained woolly hat found in a ditch nearby was believed to be significant. Miss Moreton said: “It was a type of hat Andrews said he would have associated with black people and he would not have wanted the hat for that reason. There is evidence she produced the hat in the car and that there was an argument.”
Mr Robinson, defending, asked the court: “When did you ever hear such a case based on supposition and a dramatic lack of hard evidence?
“Her story from when she was first interviewed has not changed a dot. She went along with the police that this was a road rage incident. She has never, and her family has never, believed it was. They believe it was racial, that it is because Lee had such a dark skin and was frequently mistaken for being from the Indian sub-continent. There had been an altercation between Mr Harvey and the driver of the car. The car slowed down to stop outside Keepers Cottage and the passenger got out and referred to Mr Harvey as a **** Pakistani.”
Mr Robinson said that Andrews had not been a suspect until she attempted suicide by taking an overdose after making a public appeal for witnesses.