Shirley Capp denies intimidating a witness

Marion Westerman, 36, accused Shirley Capp, 61, of saying that she was "going to be dead" because she was to give evidence at the Old Bailey.

At Sheffield Crown Court, Ms Westerman denied she had exaggerated her account of the encounter in May 2003.

Ms Capp denies a charge of intimidating a witness.

Cat argument

Defending Ms Capp, Gordon Stables said to Ms Westerman: "I suggest you certainly weren't scared of Shirley Capp, a 61-year-old neighbour who you'd known for some years."

Ms Westerman said: "Yes, I was."

Mr Stables then asked: "What did you think she was going to do, hit you with a broomstick or something?"

Ms Westerman replied: "Whatever she could have got her hands on."

The court heard how the argument centred on whether Ms Westerman's cats had used Ms Capp's garden as a toilet and whether Maxine Carr had been crying when the witness had seen her outside her house.

'Enjoyed limelight'

Mr Stables suggested to Ms Westerman that there was no way she could have been in fear of her life following the argument.

He said: "It would have been the first thing you said to the police officer if that was true, wouldn't it?"

Ms Westerman replied: "When you're stood there crying, you don't know what to say and what order to say it in. You just blurt it out."

Mr Stables then put it to Ms Westerman that she enjoyed the limelight when the media descended on her street after Carr and Ian Huntley, of Grimsby, were arrested.

Ms Westerman told the court that she had been offered money by reporters and one newspaper had even sent her flowers, but insisted she had done her best to help her neighbour.