In what was the trial's most dramatic week, the court heard daily new claims about the deceased's character, much of it highly unflattering. The often graphic testimony added further twists to a murder case which has already featured sex, lies, drugs and betrayal.

The week began with Nancy Kissel taking the stand. She gave a graphic account of drug use and sexual abuse. In a soft-spoken voice, Kissel said that her husband, former Merrill Lynch banker Robert Kissel, was a controlling and abusive husband who demanded to be shown ``respect'' when he forcibly sodomized her.

The week ended every bit as dramatically with Nancy Kissel accepting a prosecution contention that she killed her husband.

Kissel, 41, is accused bludgeoning her husband to death with a heavy metal ornament after serving him a pink milkshake laced with sedatives which left him unconscious at the foot of the bed.

Nancy Kissel testified on Wednesday that the night of the murder had seen the couple argue about divorce. She said the dispute escalated into a furious struggle between her and her husband, who was wielding a baseball bat. Kissel said that she defended herself with the metal sculpture.

Kissel said that in resisting more sexual abuse, she knocked her husband on the head. After realizing he was bleeding, her husband came at her, swinging the baseball bat, and repeatedly saying, ``I'm going to kill you, you bitch.''

In relation to the milkshake, alleged to have been laced with sedatives, she said she had made it for her children and that she would never harm children.

On Thursday, asked by her counsel, Alexander King, SC, whether she could recall how her husband ended up with five fatal wounds to his skull, she sat in her witness box, shaking, without reply.

Later Thursday, senior assistant director of public prosecutions, Peter Chapman, opened his cross-examination by asking, ``Do you accept that you killed Robert Kissel?''

The accused replied ``yes,'' and confirmed that she had used the metal ornament, the alleged murder weapon, to inflict the wounds.

Chapman then questioned her claims of Robert Kissel's alleged five-year history of alcohol and drug-fueled acts of forceful sodomy.

On Monday, the court was told the former banker's success in the banking world had changed him into a power-crazed, controlling workaholic who used cocaine to increase productivity.

But ``the hours took their toll,'' said the accused, and by the time he arrived in Hong Kong, his mood swings and demand for undisputed respect resulted in him hitting his wife on several occasions. She also said that the sex abuse resulted in her suffering a fractured rib. When her husband found out that the birth of their third child, their first son, would clash with an important business trip to Korea, he lost his temper and hit her, she claimed.

At the same time, the banker ``eventually came to love single malt whisky. It became his drink,'' said the accused. The stress and long hours of his work would result in drinking and cocaine use at night.

Financially, he also became more controlling, she said.

In Hong Kong, he ``condensed'' her spending, reducing her five credit cards to one. ``It's easier to look at one statement than five,'' she said.

Tuesday, she said that the words ``Sleeping pills, drug overdose, medication causing heart attack,'' which were found to have been typed on her computer in late August, 2003, were the result of her suicidal thoughts, she claimed. She said that she had sought ways to induce a heart attack in order to protect her children as she ``wouldn't want my children to be affected - of going through the knowledge that their mother committed suicide,'' she said.

She also said on Tuesday that her relationship with Michael Del Priore, who helped wire up their house in Vermont, involved three sexual encounters around July. Del Priore's openness and willingness to listen to her talk about the burden of being a corporate banker's wife and effectively bringing up three children on her own caused her to break down in tears, she said.

``It was the first time anybody ever stepped forward and confronted me on an issue that scares a lot of people,'' Kissel said. Consequently, she said they kept up a relationship for the next few months, communicating through letters and phone calls.

Wednesday, Kissel described her version of events on November 2, 2003, the day she killed her husband. She said her recollection of that day was ``patchy.'' In the afternoon she remembers a chaotic scene in the kitchen as all the children helped with the making of milkshakes.

Once the children had left, an argument began about divorce, she said. Seeing that her husband was holding onto a baseball bat, she picked up a metal ornament to confront him, she said. Waving a finger at her husband angered him, she said, and he then hit her and dragged her into the bedroom, trying to sexually abuse her.

As she was trying to crawl away, she swung the ornament behind her, without looking. ``I felt that I hit something, and he let go,'' she said.

When the banker realized his head was bleeding, he reportedly said ``I'm going to f****** kill you'' and started swinging his baseball bat, hitting the metal ornament which she raised in front of her face.

But then? - ``I don't remember,'' she said.

Chapman continues with his questioning today.

albert.wong@singtaonewscorp.com