A WOMAN who stabbed a man to death over a £5 drug debt has failed to have her conviction overturned.

Kathryn Taylor, 34, murdered 34-year-old Ricky Wyatt in a car park near Little Lullaway, Laindon.

Taylor of Gaywood, Basildon, was convicted of murder and jailed for life at Basildon Crown Court last October.

She was told she could expect to serve a minimum of 16 years before she would be eligible for parole.

Her lawyers appealed the against both her conviction and her sentence, but yesterday three judges upheld both, at a hearing before London’s Criminal Appeal Court.

Lord Justice Toulson, who considered the appeal with Mr Justice Griffith Williams and Judge Michael Brodrick, said Taylor’s appeal was “unarguable”.

Eyewitnesses had told the jury at the original trial Taylor pinned Mr Wyatt to a car bonnet on September 1, 2006, then stabbed him in the chest.

Her lawyers challenged the jury’s verdict, complaining last-minute evidence given during the trial should never have been allowed to go before the jury.

The evidence related to a witness, who, although giving a statement linking Taylor to the killing, had “turned hostile” in the witness box.

The argument was rejected by Lord Justice Toulson.

He said: “This was a premeditated attack with a knife, with intent to kill and there is nothing, in our judgment, arguably wrong in a minimum sentence of 16 years.”