THE husband of Simone Grainger claimed that she tried to stab him with a pair of scissors the night she died, a jury has heard.

Steven Grainger, 32, is accused of attacking his 30-year-old wife and killing her before wrapping her body in a rug at their home in Windsor Way, Calcot, on November 4 last year.

Grainger claimed that the night before her death, he and his wife had sex before going to bed together around 11.30pm. He said that he woke up during the night with a tight chest, and went downstairs to watch television so as not to disturb her.

The court was read text messages sent from Simone to Grainger at approximately 12.30am, asking him what he was doing. When he didn't reply, she messaged again to say that she wanted him to move out of the house the next day as she couldn't trust him.

Grainger said: "She probably thought I was doing drugs, I wasn't doing that."

He claimed that minutes later Simone came downstairs, ran into the living room and tried to hit him in the face.

He said: "I couldn't understand why she was so angry. She was trying to hit me and grab my hair.

"I pushed her away, and she fell backwards. She jumped up, started swearing at me and ran into the kitchen."

Grainger claimed that Simone returned with a pair of scissors and he thought she was going to stab him.

He said: "I was scared, she came charging at me with the scissors and tried to stab me with them. She was saying that she wished I was dead."

Grainger told the jury how he tried to grab Simone's arms and wrestle the scissors away from her, and put his arm around her throat. He said they struggled for a few seconds, before she 'went heavy' and he let go of her. He said she fell forwards onto the floor, and was swearing at him but he couldn't make out what she was saying. He said he then went upstairs to bed, leaving his wife on the living room floor.

He said: "If I had known she was hurt I would never have left her. It was dark and I didn't see she was bleeding, but if I had I wouldn't have gone upstairs."

Grainger claimed that when he got up at around 5.30am to go to work, he found his wife dead on the living room floor.

He said: "I went to wake her up and touched her arm, but she was freezing cold. I didn't check her pulse but I knew she was dead. I didn't know what to do. Time stopped, it didn't seem real."

When asked why he didn't call an ambulance or the police, Grainger said: "I didn't know what to do. I was being a coward."

Grainger told the court that he went into the kitchen, got a pack of cigarettes and a saucepan and went back into the living room to smoke. He claimed that he used the saucepan as an ashtray as he didn't usually smoke in the house.

He sent and received a number of text messages in the following hours to friends, work colleagues, and several unknown numbers.

He told the court: "I wanted to get drugs, I wanted to kill myself. Some of my workmates had said in the past that working girls were good for getting drugs, so I Googled some numbers, but no-one replied."

He said that when he heard his daughter stirring upstairs, he moved Simone's body into the kitchen.

He said: "I didn't want her to come down and see her mum like that. I moved the rug with her on it into the kitchen, and then washed my hands."

Grainger then said he went upstairs to see his daughter, before taking her out of the house to drop her off with a relative.

He told the court he went to his mum's house in Southcote where he said he was going to try to commit suicide, but couldn't go through with it. He claimed he spent the rest of that day by the train tracks near the river, contemplating what had happened.

The following morning, having slept outside all night, Grainger said he went back to his mum's house where he saw a number of police officers.

He said to them: "I know why you're here," before he was arrested.

Steven Grainger, of Hatford Road, Reading, denies a single charge of murder and one count of manslaughter.

The trial, before Mr Justice Knowles, continues.