A FRIEND of the Gassmann sisters was told ‘I’m going to nank that bitch’ as Charice ran towards Evelyn House where she fatally stabbed mum-of-eight Alison Connolly last May.

Neighbour Diane Hopkins lived next-door to Alison’s daughter Kylie Hayes in the block of flats near Cavendish Square, and broke into tears describing the moment her friend ended Alison’s life.

“It wasn’t acceptable, but we just stood there and watched,” she admitted.

Charice, 19, and older sister Amberstasia, 23, are accused of murdering Alison at the end of an argument which spilled out of a newsagents on May 12 this year.

Alison died having been stabbed on her daughter’s doorstep, confronted by both sisters.

Bristol Crown Court heard an argument had erupted with Charice Gassmann that day after Kylie had discovered her bike covered in brown sauce.

And hours before the fatal blow, witnesses had seen Charice and Kylie ‘bickering’ over coleslaw which had been found smeared on one of the flat windows.

Charice had been staying with a friend, 19-year-old Danielle Paige, at Evelyn House for a number of weeks at the time, close to where Kylie was living with her partner.

An old school friend of Amber’s, Diane had followed the two sisters and Danielle back to Kylie’s flat, and seen everything. Charice had armed herself with a steak knife, and a fight ensued which ended fatally.

Earlier that day, Diane said she had been with her five-year-old daughter and ex-partner at the Premier store when Alison burst in and head-butted Charice, leaving the teenager seeming ‘dazed, lost and emotionless.’

“Alison came in and just went crazy,” Diane told the jury at Bristol Crown Court.

“She gave Charice a clean head-butt. Alison started screaming at me as Charice just legged it out of the door.

“There wasn’t really a conversation, but there was obviously hatred between them.

"Alison had flipped out and started offering Charice out. To be fair to Charice, she said ‘There is kids here, we will take it outside’.

“Even before they got outside, Alison just went bang, and gave Charice a head-butt straight in the middle of the forehead.

“Charice seemed a bit dazed and legged it out of the shop saying ‘you’re f***ed’. She legged it towards her sister’s house.”

A few minutes later, Diane was waiting by the bus stop outside St John’s Church when Amber and Charice marched past her, accompanied by Danielle.

“I assume they were going to Alison’s house, in a diagonal across Cavvy Square,” Diane added.

“They have crossed the road to me, and Amber said, ‘come give us a hand’.

“I don’t know what she meant by that. Charice just looked dazed, lost and angry. I’m surprised she didn’t get concussion; she had a slit straight in the middle of her forehead. I don’t know why she didn’t go straight to hospital.”

Diane joined the group walking back towards the flats, following in the footsteps of Charice.

“I shouted to her, ‘are you all right’.

“Then Charice turned round to me and said, ‘Nope, I’m going to nank the bitch’. It was only the other day when I found out 'nank' means stab.”

Diane said Charice looked like she was in a state of shock, and was completely expressionless.

“I had never seen her like that before,” she said.

“She was just emotionless more than anything. It was almost like somebody had electrocuted her and there was no emotion there.

“As we came up the underpass to Evelyn House, we saw Charice kicking Kylie’s communal door. She went to go in, and I remember Amber saying ‘Charice, don’t go in, wait for them, to come out or you’ll get done for trespassing.

“She grabbed the handle and Alison came running out with her girls behind her. She and Charice started fighting, and that was going on for a few minutes, with punches and hair pulling.

"It looked like Alison was getting the better of Charice.”

CCTV footage was played to the jury showing a scrap outside the flats, with Charice making several lunges towards the older woman.

Relatives of the 49-year-old hugged each other or walked out as Diane explained what she had seen, as her voice cracked and she took a moment to compose herself.

She went on: “The next minute Charice has just pulled this knife out of nowhere and struck Alison. It was just like any steak knife you would find. It just went in and straight back out, and when it came back out it was dripping with blood.

“Alison shouted, ‘she’s stabbed me, she’s f***ing stabbed me’.

“Then Amber has used one of her fists and punched Alison to the back of the head, and said, ‘That’s what happens when you f*** with my family’.

“After Charice stabbed her, she was holding her hands out and looking down at them. It didn’t seem like she was there. It was like her body was there but she wasn’t.”

Michael Vere-Hodge, defending Amber, suggested there had been no punch from the older sister.

“Amber’s recollection is she and Kylie were trying to stop Alison and Charice getting into a fist fight,” he said.

“They were both trying to physically separate them. In your witness statement, you say you saw Amber punch her to the left side of her body.

“I am having to suggest your memory has played you false.”

Diane took issue with both the quality of the CCTV, and her own witness statement.

“Half of that statement I don’t agree with,” she said. “There are a fair few things I take issue with.

"The CCTV is glitchy and it jumps, so it doesn’t describe what I have been describing.”

The court had previously been told by Alastair Malcom, prosecuting, how Charice that day was "acting like a bully but, like a number of bullies, when they come off worse that spurs them on".

He said: “She armed herself with a knife. They went back together so that they could carry out revenge on Alison Connolly for having the audacity to hit Charice in the Premier store.

“It is clear that at the time that Charice plunged the knife in she intended to kill or at least do very serious bodily harm.”

Charice denies murdering Alison but admits manslaughter, while Amber denies any physical violence.

The trial continues.