Man plundered money from victim an hour after her murder, court told
The man accused of murdering Shropshire spinster Davinia Loynton was plundering her bank account barely an hour after her death, jurors have been told.
Drug addict Kevin Hyden was captured on cctv on his way to withdrawing money using bank cards stolen from Ms Loynton, of Telford.
The prosecution at Stafford Crown Court allege that Hyden tortured 59-year-old Miss Loynton in her Wellington home to get the account PIN numbers before plunging a knife in to her jugular vein.
Her body was found rolled up in her living room rug by distraught friends and colleagues from Telford-based company Serchem.
Hyden, aged 35, of Glebe Street, Wellington, denies a charge of murdering Miss Loynton on 20 September last year.
His partner, Emma Lucas, aged 39, of Keats Avenue, Stafford, denies perverting the course of justice by providing Hyden with a false alibi.
Miss Deborah Gould, prosecuting, told the jury that in the three days following Miss Loynton's murder, Hyden withdrew a total of £2,770 from her accounts, spending some of the money on drugs.
It was accepted by the defence that within an hour of Miss Loynton arriving home from a shopping trip on the Saturday morning that she was killed, Hyden was in possession of her stolen property.
"He used two of her bank cards to withdraw cash and used her mobile phone to arrange the purchase of drugs," Miss Gould told the Crown Court jury.
The bank cards and the smashed up mobile phone were later found in the block of flats where Hyden and his partner Lucas were then living.
Their flat was opposite Miss Loynton's maisonette, the court jury was told.
Police searched their flat on 30 September last year, ten days after the murder.
The pieces of the mobile phone were in a bin.
"Why was he using it so soon after her death unless he killed her?" she asked.
The case continues.
