Neighbours defend mum-of-two arrested for ‘stabbing partner to death’
Locals speak out about the couple's relationship
A MUM-of-two has been arrested on suspicion of murder after allegedly stabbing her partner to death.
The woman, who has been named locally as Elizabeth Hart-Browne, 27, was detained shortly after 11pm on Saturday night at her home.
Neighbours recalled hearing "screams" shortly before the police arrived and a pool of blood could be seen near to the flat in Ealing, west London, yesterday.
It is believed the woman stabbed her partner named by a neighbour as Stephen Rayner, inside before he later collapsed outside the property.
One man, who did not want to be named, said: "She's a lovely girl, she is decent, all I know is if she has done what she's done there must have been a cause for it.
"There's more than what it looks like, she wouldn't just do this, he would have had to have done something.
"He was quite an abusive guy behind closed doors, she was a decent girl, that's all I've got to say."
Another neighbour, Patrick Meehan, 72, who has lived in the block of flats for 20 years, said: "At about half 11 I heard girls screaming.
"And it went on till 1am, I heard a lot of commotion between half 11 and 1am.
"It was out here and it was mostly a girl screaming, or children, maybe even young girls.
"It's the first time this sort of thing has happened, never anything this serious, it's a fairly stable community.
"We have some people who come here and drink and fight and are loud, but nothing to this extreme.
"I heard something on Friday night, some sort of noise below me, there was shouting but last night was more real, the screams were more real.
"But I thought it was local people just drunk from the pub, I didn't get up to look.
"It's very sad someone has lost their life and it is shocking for it to happen so close to home."
Flowers were left at the scene yesterday in a tribute to the man.
Police were called by paramedics the flat in Baker House on Nightingale Road, Ealing shortly after 11pm on Saturday following reports of a man being injured.
He was rushed to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead shortly before midnight.
His next of kin have been informed, although formal identification is yet to take place and a post-mortem will be held in due course.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "A 27-year-old woman was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder.
"She was taken to a north London police station where she remains in custody."
A neighbour who did not want to be identified, named the dead man yesterday as Stephen Rayner.
She said the couple had been in an “abusive relationship” and had one child together.
The woman added: “I’ve known her for almost two years.
“Stephen lived with her, the four of them. Blake is nearly three and he is both of theirs.
“Scarlett is Elizabeth’s from another relationship and she’s around seven.
“I heard from my neighbours they saw him run out of the flat and fall to the floor, he ran out, she tried to put pressure on his wound on his neck and then called the ambulance.
“They tried to resuscitate him for around and hour then they took him away, from what I heard he was already dead on the floor.
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“Elizabeth was a lovely person, down to earth, hard working, motivated and family was her everything.
“But they weren’t compatible, he is not for her, she wanted someone who is comforting but he isn’t like that, he’s cold, he brushes off things.
“He has a very hot temper over the littlest things, he can go from zero to a thousand and go off on one.
“I’ve seen her battered and bruised, knowing it had come from him, I heard them arguing the night before and I saw her in the morning and she tried telling me the bruises on her arm weren’t from him.
“She’s been in an abusive relationship for a long time, police have been here a numerous amount of times because of them.
“It’s just such a shock to find out last night this has happened, I just can’t believe it.”