Man 'strangled elderly parents'

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The son of an elderly couple beat them with a hammer and strangled them before dumping their bodies 150 miles from their home, a court has been told.

Timothy Crook, 44, has been ruled unfit to enter a plea over the killings of Robert, 83, and Elsie, 76, of Swindon.

Jurors at Bristol Crown Court must now decide if Mr Crook, who is mentally ill, was responsible for their deaths.

Mr and Mrs Crook's bodies were found in the garden of a house their son owned in Lincoln on 15 July 2007.

They had last been seen alive four days earlier.

'Difficult past'

Mr Crook, who appeared in court via video link, has a history of mental illness dating back to 2000.

The court heard how he returned to live with his parents after he lost his job with the Royal Air Force in Lincolnshire.

Prosecutor Martin Meeke said: "For some years, Timothy had lived with them and had had a difficult past.

"There had been a time when he had worked at an RAF station near Lincoln, but he lost that job, and after a time when he had been estranged from his parents he got back in contact and went back to live with them, but it was not a happy arrangement."

The court was told the couple's bodies were transported in their own car and dumped in the open in the garden of Mr Crook's house in Foxglove Way, Lincoln.

Bloodstained clothing

They had been savagely beaten with a hammer.

Jurors heard that bloodstained clothing found in bin bags in the Crooks' house on Thames Avenue in Swindon had been worn by Mr Crook.

Mr Meeke told the court: "Let us suppose that some stranger had come into their house and killed Timothy Crook's parents.

"It may have been expected that if he had found the bodies to call the police, or if this stranger had hid the bodies in the father's car and driven them away to report that his parents were missing.

"Or to have noticed the bloodstained bed and walls in his parents bedroom to call the police. It didn't happen."

The hearing continues.