A court has heard how an Ammanford nursery nurse accused of stabbing 19-year-old Dan Jonas in a town centre park tried to burn her blood-stained dressing gown by claiming she was cremating a hamster.

This morning (Wednesday), a 17-year-old witness who cannot be named for legal reasons described Shaunagh Downing’s behaviour as ‘manic’ following a night’s drinking session in Number One Wind Street.

“I saw her running very fast down the road and as she got closer I could see a knife in her hand,” the minor told Swansea Crown Court via a video link.

“She kept repeating that she’d stabbed Dan and kept rubbing her hand on the side of her dressing gown because there was blood on it.

“Then she asked me to go up the garden with her to cremate her hamster.

“She put her dressing gown in the fire pit and then she put the deceased hamster on top.

“She asked me to light it as she was too upset to do it herself but I was scared. I thought she could do to me what she’d done to Dan.”

Another Prosecution witness, Fin Quick, claimed that Downing’s actions that morning were out of control.

“I was walking back to Shaunagh’s house around 5.30am as someone said she was having a little party,” he said.

“But as I was walking at the top of Talbot Road, near to the Andy Pandy nursery, I saw Shaunagh running from the Tegfan care home direction in her dressing gown. She ran into the house and I met her in the hallway. She was manic and paranoid.

“She kept saying ‘I’ve stabbed Black Dan! I’ve stabbed him! I’m tapped! I’m tapped! I need to be sectioned.'”

Downing, 22, denies wounding Dan Jonas in Dol y Dderwen Gardens and of possessing an offensive weapon in a public place during the alleged incident on July 3.

Earlier in the trial Mr Jonas said he and a group of friends had spent the afternoon and evening drinking in The Cottage pub, Ammanford before moving on to Number One Wind Street where they remained until 3am.

Downing and Mr Jonas left separately to go to their respective homes, however an argument broke out via text and voice messages on Snapchat.

Mr Jonas admitted that that the messages he’d sent the defendant were ‘offensive’ and included talk about her sex life and private parts.

He said that he became concerned when the defendant threatened to come to his house and hurt his family, but also said he didn’t believe she would do so.

However when Downing knocked on the door he told her to go to the side gate as he didn’t want to wake his family.

He claims Downing pushed the gate and stabbed him in the ribs, but as he tried to grab the knife he gained cuts to his right hand from holding the blade. He further claims that Downing bit him twice on the arm.

He denied the defence’s claim that Downing was acting in self defence, and that the knife was in fact his.

The trial continues.