Pensioner killed for bag containing husband's ashes, court hears

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/23/pensioner-killed-bag-snatched-shaw

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A vulnerable pensioner died of a heart attack after a bag containing her husband's ashes was violently snatched by a drug user who needed to feed his habit, a court has heard.

Nellie Geraghty, 79, was found with severe head injuries, mumbling and face down in mud, just 100 yards from her home in Shaw, near Oldham, Greater Manchester.

She suffered a "most violent attack" as she walked to a nearby luncheon club, the jury at Manchester crown court were told, and died two days later.

Mark Royle, 37, of no fixed adddress, denies murder and has also pleaded not guilty to an alternative manslaughter charge, and one of robbery. At the time of the incident, last November, Royle was living rough and had a drug habit.

The court heard a neighbour saw Geraghty walking from her home in Elizabeth Grove to a nearby community centre at 11.50am on 24 November. But she did not make it to her destination, Peter Wright QC said, as she was discovered by passersby just three minutes later on a path by the side entrance of the centre. Her glasses had been broken and were tangled in her scarf.

"She was deeply unconscious and she was mumbling," said Wright. "She appeared to be seriously injured and was bleeding from an injury to the back of her head. Her bag was missing and it appeared to have been wrenched from her grasp – snapped along the strap – because notwithstanding the fact that she was deeply unconscious she still had hold of the strap in her right hand from which the bag had been torn."

Geraghty was taken to Royal Oldham hospital but failed to regain consciousness and died in the early hours of 26 November. The cause of death was internal bleeding and a heart attack, likely to have been suffered at the crime scene.

Geraghty, who was described as "vulnerable, but independent", suffered serious head injuries. The prosecution said the overwhelming likelihood was that she was knocked to the ground and then kicked or stamped on. The prosecutor said it was possible she had been punched to the floor and her head bounced on the ground as she fell.

"Either way, we say this was a most violent attack on a vulnerable, elderly lady in which she sustained serious injuries, which ultimately led to her death," he said.

"Mark Royle was a user of hard drugs at the time of these matters," Wright said. "He was funding his drug use, we say, in part by committing crime. We say that on the occasion we are concerned with he resorted to a crime of violence in order to fund his drug habit."

Wright said Geraghty was an "extremely active and independent lady" who lived alone in sheltered housing. Her husband, Frank, had died some years ago and she was so devoted to him she had taken to carrying some of his ashes in her shoulder bag whenever she went out, the court heard. She also frequently carried large amounts of cash [up to £200] in her bag.

The prosecution said the jury would hear from a neuropathologist who will say that the injuries to Geraghty's head were caused by "considerable force" that caused the brain to shift. He believed it was more probable that impact was caused by a kick or stamp to the side of her head while she lay on the floor, rather than being suffered in a fall.

Detectives launched an investigation and CCTV footage in the area was trawled extensively, he added. The footage showed Mark Royle at 9.40am riding a mountain bike in and around the town, with no particular purpose of direction.

"We say the reason he was doing so was he was up to no good," the prosecutor added. "He was looking for an opportunity for crime to fund his drug habit."

In the immediate aftermath of the attack on Nellie Geraghty, he was captured cycling away 60 seconds after she was last sighted.

The trial continues.