Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Peter Chapman added that her claim now of selective memory loss, ''is equally a lie.''

Kissel, 41, is accused of serving her husband Robert a pink milkshake laced with sedatives, which left him unconscious at the foot of the bed as she bludgeoned him to death with a heavy metal ornament on November 2, 2003.

The body of her husband, a high-flying banker with Merrill Lynch, was found wrapped in a rug in a storeroom at their Parkview residential complex in the early hours of November 7. She denies the murder charge and is out on bail.

The furious fight she described, in which she claimed she fought for her life against a baseball-bat wielding, abusive Robert Kissel ``just didn't happen,'' said the prosecutor.

The court also heard claims that Robert Kissel would not accept a drink from his wife by November because he knew of the accused's Internet searches for drugs and had tasted something strange in his whisky.

The couple's neighbor, Andrew Tanzer, and his daughter - who helped bring out the milkshakes - were, therefore, unwittingly used to deliver the drugs into the victim's body, the prosecutor suggested.

The ``problem'' with her claim of memory loss during and after the claimed fatal fight on November 2, 2003, was that she managed to recount a version of events to Dr Annabel Dythin on November 4, said Chapman.

``The account you gave to Dr Dythin is significantly different from the account you've given as evidence,'' he added.

As well as depicting a different version of events without mention of a life-or-death struggle or a dead husband, ``there's not a single reference in that report to you having any difficulty recalling events,'' said Chapman.

The accused said she could not remember what she told Dr Dythin, and that she only started to ``piece things together'' when she was in Siu Lam psychiatric center between the end of 2003 and 2004.

``What the [Dythin] report records is an attempt by you to embark on a process of deception, isn't it Mrs Kissel?'' asked Chapman.

``No it's not. I don't have a memory of that day, nor the visit,'' she replied.

``You had a memory on November 4, that's your problem isn't it Mrs Kissel?'' said Chapman. She said she did not know what she remembered then.

On November 4, evidence suggested she went to consult Dr Dythin, who compiled an assault report based on an account given by the accused.

The report said the accused was holding a fork upside down and a glass, while her husband assaulted her using hands and feet, chasing her around the room. Chapman said that the fork was a lie used to explain the puncture wounds on her hands that she received when she used the ornament ``to smash Robert Kissel's head.''

Kissel testified last week that the couple had an argument in the hallway about divorce, resulting in her husband dragging her into the bedroom and attempting to force sodomy. Resisting, she knocked him on the head, which resulted in him swinging a baseball bat at her and saying: ``I'm going to kill you, you bitch.''

She later accepted that she inflicted the fatal wounds with the metal ornament, but said she could not remember any further details.

The days about which she has no recollection include ``incriminating acts where you sought to cover up what you had done on November 2 to Robert Kissel,'' said Chapman.

``I don't know what happened to me after that night,'' said the accused, who added she had to accept what the prosecution claims. ``I still don't know. It's a part of my life that's been taken from me.''

Chapman countered: ``The person who has had a part of life taken from him is Robert Kissel, because you killed him. And in order to achieve that purpose, you had to drug him first.''

The accused said there was a ``horrible fight'' with a baseball bat. ``He was going to kill me, and I defended myself, because he was going to kill me. I fought for my life,'' she said. Chapman countered: ``You just forgot to mention that to Dr Dythin, 36 hours later. You remember not putting drugs in the milkshake, but remember Robert Kissel threatening to kill you.''

Chapman noted the fight she described was a furious life-or-death struggle, which nobody heard. She said the helpers never knew what went on in the bedroom, and she never asked neighbors if they heard anything.

Given the five-year history of abuse, the appearance of her husband with a threatening baseball bat should have excited her into choosing from a ``far superior array of weapons,'' seeking help from the helpers or simply walking out the door, said Chapman.

The accused said she wanted to have a discussion about divorce.

Chapman said she described her husband standing over her, aiming blows to her head from above.

``How did you get the better of Robert Kissel using this ornament?''

She replied: ``I don't know.''

``Because it didn't happen Mrs Kissel, it just didn't happen,'' said Chapman.

As the day's proceedings ended, the accused exclaimed: ``He was going to kill me, he was going to kill me, oh God, he was going to kill me.''

The cross-examination continues today.