A woman accused of killing a pensioner in a Welwyn Garden City bank has claimed she was acting in self defence.

Courtney Richman, of Queens Avenue in Welwyn Garden City, denies manslaughter and an alternative lesser charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm, following the death of 82-year-old Myra Coutinho-Lopez.

She died on December 16, 2021, 10 days after she had been pushed to the floor of Lloyds Bank in Howardsgate.

The 26-year-old told Luton Crown Court on Monday that after Mrs Coutinho-Lopez had held up the queue at the branch due to a dispute with a cashier, she told her: "We’ve all got things to do and there are people behind you and you are holding us all up."

She clapped as another customer moved her away, and it was then, she claimed, that the elderly woman told her "your man must have left you" and "you should get a man", before hitting her on the back with her hand bag.

READ MORE: 'Red mist' descended for woman accused of killing Welwyn Garden City pensioner

"I wasn’t thinking anything. I just reacted. I pushed her away from me," she told the court.

"She had just hit me and I thought she was going to do it again. I did not expect her to go to the floor."

Richman also said she believed she did not do anything that should have led to her being hit, and that she told the 82-year-old: "I am not your punchbag."

Despite the defendant's claims that she was merely frustrated, prosecutor Martin Mulgrew put to her that pushing Mrs Coutinho-Lopez was an "angry retaliation", which she denied.

Asked about the death of Ms Coutinho-Lopez she added: "I feel terrible, I think about it every day since it has happened and I feel very sorry that she is no longer here."

The trial continues.