An accused killer who claimed her boyfriend forced her to join a fatal attack on her brother for being a witch told a “whopping great lie”, a court heard.

Magalie Bamu, 28, has said that Eric Bikubi threatened her with a plank of wood and ordered her to join in as 15-year-old Kristy was tortured to death.

She claimed her partner of seven years had often been violent and controlling and told jurors she had even sought help from a women’s refuge when he gave her a black eye.

Different story

But cross-examining her at the Old Bailey, prosecutor Brian Altman QC said she had told a different story in a statement made in August last year – eight months after the killing.

He asked Bamu to explain the statement, in which she asserted: “Eric was never violent towards me”.

Bamu said: “I was ashamed.

“I was still in denial and I was ashamed of what he had done to me.”

Mr Altman asked her: “So you decided to tell a whopping great lie in this statement simply to hide your shame?”

“I was ashamed and still am,” replied Bamu.

In her evidence, Bamu claimed she had only hit Kristy and his sisters with a plastic dustpan.

But according to her brothers and sisters, she had also used a large wooden stick and prised off part of Kristy’s ear with a pair of pliers, said Mr Altman.

Bamu said she could not recall the attack in detail, adding: “I didn’t sleep, I didn’t eat.”

Kristy was pronounced dead just after 1pm on Christmas Day 2010 at Bikubi and Bamu’s eighth-floor flat in Hathaway Crescent, Manor Park, after suffering 101 injuries.

Bamu and Bikubi, also 28, are said to have subjected him to “torture of quite brutal and savage proportions” after accusing him of “sorcery” while he was visiting from his home in Paris.

Bikubi denies murder but admits manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

He has also pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm to Kristy’s older sister Kelly and a younger sister, who cannot be named.

Magalie Bamu denies murder and two counts of actual bodily harm.