A young woman described today how she fought for her life after being attacked by a knife-wielding killer.
Kerry Clark, 24, said she grabbed the blade with one hand and kicked Nicola Edgington off her.
Miss Clark was at a bus stop when Edgington attacked her.
Edgington, who had been released from a secure mental unit after killing her mother, had pinned Miss Clark to the ground and was pointing the knife at her chest.
She told the Old Bailey: "We were grappling. I managed to grab the blade with one hand and kick her off me. It happened very quickly."
The encounter in Bexleyheath, south east London, happened in October 2011, moments before Edgington ran into a butcher's to grab another knife and kill Sally Hodkin, 58.
Both women were strangers to her and were on their way to work.
Edgington, 32, of Greenwich, south east London, denies murder and attempted murder.
She had spent three years in a secure hospital after pleading guilty to the 2005 manslaughter of her mother but was released into community care in 2009.
Miss Clark said she had been listening to music on her headphones at the bus stop when she became aware of a woman approaching her aggressively.
She said: "I saw a woman lunging at me with a knife. She had a knife in her hand and was angling it towards my chest in a downwards motion.
"She was screaming 'You f****** bitch, you f****** bitch'.
"My instant reaction was to put my hand up and try to protect myself from the knife.
"I had the blade in my right hand but I felt her pushing more with the knife, so I went back to try to avoid it.
"I fell to the floor and she was on top of me. I had to fight her off.
"I was looking at the knife. I have a vague recollection of her face which was aggressive.
"She was on top of me with the knife still at my chest. I still hand my hand round the blade. I was trying to get her off me or get the knife from her.
"I kicked out at her whilst I was on the ground. As soon as she was away from me I got up. I had the knife.
"I said 'What's wrong with you, you crazy bitch?' She said 'I am not the crazy one. You are the one with the knife in your hand'.
"She appeared angry. She asked for her knife back. I told her to get away, she is not going to have it back. She looked bewildered. She just left."
As people in the street and an estate agents went to help her, Miss Clark noticed she had cuts to her palm and three fingertips from where she grabbed the weapon.
Ninety minutes before, Edgington had walked out of a psychiatric unit at a local hospital where she had gone asking for help.
Edgington killed her mother with a knife and was sent to a secure unit without limit of time after being diagnosed with schizophrenia.
But the prosecution says it is not prepared to accept the same explanation this time.
The trial was adjourned to tomorrow.
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