Telford woman was murdered for her PIN numbers, court told

Office manager Davinia Loynton, 59, was settling down for a quiet Saturday to read her newspaper when she inadvertently opened the door to her killer.

Her battered and bloodied body was found rolled up in her living room rug by distraught friends and colleagues after she failed to show up on the Monday morning at the office she had run for 30 years.

Police searching around the flats near Davinia Loynton's home 10 days after her death found a carrier bag in a wheelie bin, a crown court jury was told.

In the bag a constable found the office manager's two bank cards.

Also found were the 59-year-old spinster's store cards, car keys, house keys - and a lottery ticket.

"The last thing Davinia Loynton bought from Tesco's was a lottery ticket," Miss Deborah Gould told Stafford Crown Court yesterday. (MON)

Kevin Hyden's fingerprints were on the lottery ticket found in the garbage.

On the back of it was a piece of black sticky tape.

On 4 October, police searched Hyden's flat again. Under the sink was a roll of black sticky tape, the end piece torn off.

That tear and the piece on the lottery ticket matched exactly, the court was told.

Also discovered in the first search was a bin bag containing a laptop computer which was stolen by Hyden in a burglary at the Midland Air Ambulance charity shop ten days before the murder.

Another bag contained items of clothing, including a top, trainers and a cap.

"What the Crown say is this was a storage cupboard used by Hyden to keep his burglar's kit," said the prosecutor.

Miss Loynton was the victim of a burglary on 16 January last year.

The burglar left a footprint on the kitchen work-top which matched the sole of the trainers found at the flats.

There was blood on the trainers and that was matched to Hyden's.

Hyden was quizzed by the police on 23 September and in six separate interviews denied any involvement in the murder.

However, he admitted being in possession of her bank cards and withdrawing money. He told officers he found them and the mobile phone in a bag on a grassed area outside the flats.

She had been tortured to reveal the PIN numbers to her bank cards, her skull smashed with a hammer-like weapon and then a knife taken to her jugular vein.

Miss Deborah Gould, prosecuting, alleged she had been murdered by drug addict Kevin Hyden, who had burgled Miss Loynton's Wellington maisonette nine months previously.

After the killing, Hyden sent fake text messages to Miss Loynton's worried colleagues at Telford-based Serchem suggesting she was in Falmouth, she said.

When the company's boss Paul Arnold saw them, he knew instantly they were fake and raised the alarm.

Miss Gould told the jury at Stafford Crown Court it was Hyden who sent the messages – and Miss Loynton was already dead.

She added: "The prosecution say Hyden was responsible for her murder and the motive was the oldest one in the world, money. He had a serious drug addiction and was desperate for money to buy drugs."

Hyden, 35, of Glebe Street in Wellington, denies a charge of murdering Miss Loynton on September 20 last year.

His partner Emma Lucas, 39, of Keats Avenue, Stafford, denies perverting the course of justice by providing Hyden with a false alibi.

Hyden, who lived in a block of flats opposite the victim, knew she had a car and a job, she could afford a laptop and jewellery and knew she would have a bank account, the court was told.

"After murdering her he rolled her bloodied body in her own rug and hid her body behind the sofa where she had been sitting beforehand reading her newspaper," said Miss Gould.

She said the killer had tortured Miss Loynton to reveal her PIN numbers.

She alleged said that when Miss Loynton answered a knock at the door of her home in St John Street, Hyden assaulted her immediately, taking her by surprise and rendering her helpless within seconds.

The defendant had taken with him a weapon, probably a hammer and a roll of adhesive tape which he used to bind her wrists, she said.

He armed himself with a barbecue fork from the kitchen and may have taken a knife, she added.

"His intention was clear," said Miss Gould. "He needed her to be at home. He wanted her to be at home because only she could provide the PIN numbers for access to cash.

"Using the barbecue fork, the hammer, the knife and, possibly, a kettle, the defendant tortured Davinia Loynton until she gave up the PIN numbers.

"Once the PIN numbers were extracted, she was no longer required, in fact she was a liability for Hyden. At that stage she was killed. She would have died in pain and terror on the floor of her own lounge where she was entitled to be be safe."

Among Miss Loynton's injuries were a fractured skull caused by a heavy weapon like a hammer and extensive fractures to the cheek, nose, jaw and eye socket. A pathologist likened the injuries to those of a car crash victim or a fall from a great height.

The trial continues.