The brother of former EastEnders actress Gemma McCluskie had no recollection of killing her or dismembering her and dumping the body in a canal, a court has been told.
Tony McCluskie said the last thing he remembered was grabbing his sister's wrists as she wielded a knife at him and threatened to stab him on 1 March last year.
The 35-year-old admits killing Gemma but denies murder, saying he has no recollection of what happened after he grabbed her.
Gemma McCluskie played Kerry Skinner in EastEnders
Gemma's torso was found in a suitcase in the Regent's Canal in east London, followed by her limbs in plastic bags. Her head was found six months later.
The 29-year-old, who played Kerry Skinner, the niece of Ethel Skinner, in the BBC soap in 2001, was officially identified by dental records.
At her brother's murder trial at the Old Bailey, the prosecution has said pot-smoking Mr McCluskie bludgeoned his sister to death in the flat they shared after a row about an overflowing sink.
Tony, 35, told the jury on Monday he had left a tap on early in the morning of 1 March 2012, sparking an argument and prompting his sister to call him later in the day and demand that he moved out.
When they were both later back in the house in Pelter Street, Shoreditch, east London, the argument continued and his sister came at him with a knife, he said.
Tony, wearing a tie and glasses, told the court she had threatened to stab him, his on-off partner Terri Arnull, and to make sure Ms Arnull's son, who he viewed as his own, was taken into care.
"She started screaming and shouting at me, again calling me all the names: prick, wanker, c**t, junkie," he told the court.
"Calling me all the names, you know, saying that I should go and stay round Terri's for a while. She just wanted me out the house.
"I kept on saying to her that I wouldn't be leaving the house.
"She threatened to call the police, I told her to go ahead and that I still wouldn't be leaving.
"I said she was making a big deal about things and if she was to come upstairs she would know that there was no damage done and she was making a big issue out of things."
He said he walked upstairs, and called his sister to come and look at the bathroom.
"She came up the stairs, she was shouting, 'are you gonna go, are you gonna go, are you gonna go?'.
"I turned round and she was standing there with a knife in her hand."
He said she told him if he did not get out she would stab him, Ms Arnull, and have Ms Arnull's son taken into care.
"I got very angry, I just couldn't believe what I was hearing," Tony told the court.
"All I remember is just grabbing her wrists. After that I have no recollection."
He told the court the next thing he remembered was waking up the Saturday after his sister's death on the Thursday.
Mr McCluskie said he had no recollection of killing her, dismembering her, or clearing up afterwards.