By Shenai Raif
THE Duchess of York's former dresser made desperate attempts to cover her tracks after killing her lover with a kitchen knife, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.
They included ''rigging the scene'' and sending text messages to friends denying what she had done, alleged Bruce Houlder, QC, prosecuting.
Jane Andrews, 34, made a 'half hearted' attempt to make it seem that she had been frightened of wealthy Tommy Cressman by tying a bathrobe cord from the bedroom door to the banisters. But the cord slipped off easily and the attempt did not ''bear up to close examination".
Ms Andrews, who worked for the duchess for nine years until 1997, denies murdering businessman Mr Cressman, 39, at the home they shared in Fulham, west London, in September last year.
The prosecution allege she hit Mr Cressman on the head with a cricket bat and then stabbed him with an 8 inch kitchen knife as he got ready for bed.
Ms Andrews was said to have been overcome by jealous rage after realising Mr Cressman was not going to marry her.
As Mr Cressman lay dying in his blood covered bedroom, she left two notes for her parents in the kitchen. They read: ''I am so sorry. No more hurt inside me any more'' and ''Tom hurt me so much. He was so cruel to me''.
After fleeing to the West Country in her VW Polo car, she sent a series of emails and text messages denying knowledge of the attack.
After four days she was found in a layby on the A38 near Plymouth having taken an overdose. She later told police she attacked Mr Cressman in self defence.
Earlier, Mr Houlder told the court that Mr Cressman's right hand was still holding the knife between his thumb and forefinger when a employee found his body on Monday September 18.
There were cuts consistent with him having tried to remove it. A cricket bat with which he had been struck on the head lay at the foot of the bed, and there was blood on the bedclothes and walls.
The gashing wound in the right side of the chest indicated that the knife had been inserted to the full extent of its blade, then moved up.
Mr Cressman's mother Barbara was the first witness in court and said the couple had been rowing on Friday September 15 just before returning to England from her holiday home in the South of France.
They had been on a shopping trip to St Tropez and when they returned Ms Andrews went to her room ''like a thunder cloud'' and did not appear for lunch.
Mr Cressman's nephew David, a 21 year old university student, said he travelled with the couple to the airport.
He said there was a lot of friction and Ms Andrews accused his uncle of ''wasting years of her life in the sense that the relationship was not going anywhere''.
Christina Abbott, head of the personal shopping department at Harvey Nichols, told the court she had become ''close friends'' with Ms Andrews after the pair met as a result of her former job with the Duchess of York.
''I always thought that they were very much a couple but there were various incidents that made me realise that things were not quite right all the time, she said.''
Ms Andrews had rung her several times from a holiday in August 1999. ''Tom, I believe, had told Jane that he did not love her. Obviously she was very distraught.'' In May, last year, she had been distraught after finding emails between Mr Cressman and a woman in America. She had been particularly upset at Mr Cressman's reference to her as an ''old pair of slippers that he could not be got rid of''.