NO evidence existed that a teenage girl and her sister waited for bank

clerk Alison Shaughnessy to return home and then murdered her, a defence

lawyer told an Old Bailey jury yesterday.

''Where is the evidence they did this? There is none,'' said Lady

Mallalieu, QC, defending 19-year-old Lisa Taylor in the love triangle

killing case.

She said Miss Taylor was 17 at the time Mrs Shaughnessy was murdered

and had never been in trouble in her life.

''There is absolutely nothing heard in this court to suggest this

young girl is anything other than a perfectly normal teenager,'' said

Lady Mallalieu.

''There has been no evidence she is either mentally deficient or a

psychopath, but you may think she would have had to be one or another to

behave as the prosecution suggest she did.''

The allegation against her was ''patently absurd''.

Lisa Taylor and Michelle Taylor, her 21-year-old sister, of Forest

Hill, London, both deny murdering Mrs Shaughnessy on June 3 last year.

The court has heard that Michelle Taylor had an affair with Mrs

Shaughnessy's husband John and the prosecution alleges Mrs Shaughnessy

was stabbed 54 times in a jealous frenzy.

Lady Mallalieu said Mrs Shaughnessy's murder was more likely to have

been carried out by an intruder whom she disturbed at her home.

Her injuries suggested she was initially attacked on the front of her

body, suggesting she met her attacker in the flat as she came in.

Lady Mallalieu said the prosecution's claim that this was a

cold-blooded killing did not match what the pathologist had described as

a ''frenzied or panic'' attack during which 54 stab wounds were

inflicted.

''But it is characteristic of the cornered intruder,'' she said.

''It is our contention that there is no evidence that makes Lisa

Taylor guilty of murder. Where evidence is thin or non-existent, as it

is in this case, the temptation to guess or speculate is enormous but

guesswork and speculation are not evidence and nor is suspicion.''

The trial was adjourned until today.