A woman accused of disguising herself with a wig, fake goatee beard and heavy-framed glasses before killing her half-sister with a chicken-shaped casserole pot in Letchworth today told a jury she was not the killer.

Yvonne Caylor, of Grove Road in Hitchin, is alleged by the prosecution to have gone to her 26-year-old half-sister Nicola ‘Nicki’ Collingbourne’s flat in Ivel Court and attacked her to stop her giving evidence against her in a crown court trial for burgling the flat.

At Luton Crown Court today Ms Caylor, 53, used a stick to walk to the witness box.

Her barrister Graham Trembath QC asked her: “Did you murder your half-sister Nicki Collingbourne?”

She replied: “No sir.”

Asked if she had played any part in her death, she again replied: “No sir.”

Nicki was killed on May 23, six months after Ms Caylor was charged with burgling Nicki’s flat and trying to pervert the course of justice.

She pleaded not guilty to both offences in April, and her case was in a list for trial at Cambridge Crown Court some time in the eight weeks starting on May 23.

Ms Caylor today denied committing the burglary, which the prosecutor John Price QC alleges she carried out with the aid of a locksmith the day after Nicki evicted her from the flat in October 2015.

Ms Caylor told the court she had been dragged out of the flat by Nicki after a row, and had not hired a locksmith to get back in to take anything.

She said: “At no point did I call a locksmith.”

She also denied phoning Nicki’s mother Rena Hibbert-Jones – who has since died – in an attempt to have her lie about who certain items belonged to.

“I have never phoned her, ever,” she said. “She wouldn’t know what I sound like.”

Ms Caylor said she had never been to a fancy dress shops to try on wigs, saying: “I would have to cut my hair off to put a wig on.”

When Mr Trembath asked if she was the intruder who could be seen on CCTV getting into the flat at about 8am on May 23, she replied: “Since I left I have never been back there – not once, never.”

At the start of her evidence Ms Caylor told the court that she had moved to the United States in 1992 or 1993, when Nicki – who had the same father – was aged only two.

While there she worked as a high-pressure welder and married an American.

Nicki stayed with her there for nearly a year in 2011 or 2012, Ms Caylor said, before returning to the UK. Ms Caylor followed a few months later after suffering a back injury at work.

She lived with Nicki at her late grandmother’s address before they moved to Ivel Court, a couple of months before Nicki evicted her in October 2015.

Yvonne Caylor denies murder. The case continues.