Because he called her by new lover’s name

London, Oct. 18: A jealous woman knifed her ex-hero to death after he accidentally called her by the name of his new girl, a court heard.

Blonde waitress Danielle Bradley plunged a long kitchen knife into Royal Marine James Swallow’s heart.

They had ended their year-long affair three months earlier and Iraq War commando James, 23, had started a new relationship with a girl called Vicky in his home city of Leeds.

But James, one of the first British troops ashore in the 2003 invasion, met Bradley, 26, by accident while on a night out in Plymouth where he was based.

Prosecutor Sarah Munro QC told Exeter Crown Court he stopped off briefly at her home while returning to barracks.

They pair hugged and all was fine until James called Bradley “Vicky” in a slip of the tongue. Miss Munro said: “Danielle Bradley stabbed her ex-boyfriend with a large knife in the chest and killed him.

“She did so in the bedroom of her home in a moment of what we say was jealous rage because he had accidentally called her by the name of his new girlfriend.

“As he prepared to leave her home, having called a taxi, she took the knife from a drawer of her bedside table and plunged it straight through his heart without a word of warning.”

Bradley, who has a five-year-old daughter, was found by James’s body, sobbing: “I didn’t mean it. What have I done.” Miss Munro went on: “She told police he was a real gentleman and one of the nicest people she ever met.

“No one had a bad word to say against him. He was a thoroughly decent young man.”

The couple split because he did not want to settle down in Plymouth and wanted to spend more time in Leeds. Bradley admits manslaughter but denies murder. She says she attempted to harm herself and accidentally stabbed James as he tried to stop her.

But Miss Munro told the jury that James’s 18cm deep wound would have required “moderate force”.

The case continues.

Mumbai Mirror