A daughter accused of trying to stab her mother to death claims her dead grandmother's spirit told her to do it, a jury heard.
Lorraine Mbulawa (19) told police she was in a trance-like state when she put on dark clothes, gloves and a self-fashioned balaclava.
She then allegedly attempted to murder her mother, Sibusisiwe, who was asleep in bed. She woke during the attack, believing it was a burglar and wrestled a knife from her assailant.
She told a jury she believes in witchcraft and being possessed by spirits, as do many in their homeland in Zimbabwe.
The 43-year-old nurse said at Leicester Crown Court: "I saw this figure in my room and a shiny object was in the air. I was petrified. I thought it was an intruder."
After grabbing the knife, she switched on the light and pulled off the mask – and realised it was her daughter.
Mrs Mbulawa said her daughter was screaming and eventually said: "Mummy people are after us. They want to kill us."
She held the hysterical teenager and tried to calm her down before phoning her brother.
He alerted the police and rushed to the home in Tatlow Road, Braunstone Frith, just after midnight on May 13, 2009.
The teenager, a former health and social care student at Leicester's Gateway College, denies attempted murder.
Her mother received a cut to the side of her face and four stab wounds to her arms.
James House, prosecuting, said when the police arrived, Mbulawa claimed her dead grandmother had told her that her mother had killed her father and "wanted me to do it."
The court heard her father died suddenly, after collapsing at home in Zimbabwe, in 2000.
Mrs Mbulawa said her husband's mother, who died a year later, unjustifiably blamed her in some way for the death.
She moved to England in 2002 with Lorraine, who knew of the family rift.
Mr House said: "The prosecution say the defendant was putting on an act that night. Once she'd been disarmed, she was faced with a grave situation.
"She either had to accept she attacked her mother and explain why, or she'd have to come up with an excuse.
"She pretended to be in a trance. It's just a ruse.
"The complexity of her actions, to get changed out of bed clothes, to dress in dark clothes and create a balaclava out of a hat demonstrates a level of planning."
He said the "balaclava" was a hat worn back to front, covering her whole face, but with eyeholes deliberately cut out.
He said the two who lived together had a good relationship.
There was no history of problems with drink, drugs, mental health or depression. The prosecution do not know a motive.
Mr House said: "Her mother has expressed a belief in the power of spirits common in the culture of Zimbabwe.
"Had it happened there her daughter would have been treated by a medicine man and would have been exorcised."
Mrs Mbulawa told the jury she believed in people being possessed by evil spirits and also witchcraft.
She said her daughter appeared not to be herself on the night of the attack and she did not recognise her daughter's voice.
"She wasn't the same daughter that I knew," she said.
The trial continues.
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