A DISABLED widow was attacked and left to die by a neighbour, a court has heard.
Peter Smith, 48, is alleged to have murdered Hilda Owen in a bid to claim money from her will to solve his financial troubles.
Nottingham Crown Court heard he had debts of more than £35,000.
Prosecutor Peter Joyce QC told the jury Mrs Owen, 71, who had lived alone since her husband died in August, 2005, was attacked as she sat in a chair in her home in West Hill, Skegby.
Her body was found lying on the floor in the rear living room on March 1, 2007.
Her injuries were consistent with the use of a claw hammer and a screwdriver.
Also found were injuries to her neck, both externally and internally, with a fracture to the hyoid bone in the neck, indicating she had been strangled.
Mr Joyce told the jury yesterday: "Injuries to her hands indicated she had tried to defend herself.
"Blows to her head caused injuries to her brain that led to her death, but the pattern of injury showed she had stayed, after the attack with the hammer and screwdriver, alive for 15 to 24 hours.
"Either she had been attacked and partly strangled at the same time and left to die, or she had been attacked, left, and then later strangled."
Mr Joyce said analysis of the scene indicated that she had been attacked from behind while she was sitting in a chair, then she had moved or been moved on to her back on the floor and further attacked there, causing blood to spatter on the walls, door and ceiling.
Smith is charged with murdering Mrs Owen between February 26 and March 1, 2007.
He later gave police a copy of Mrs Owen's will, leaving everything to him.
The document was allegedly written by Smith and had been bought from retailer WH Smith on February 19, 2007, but was backdated to January 22, 2007.
Mr Joyce said: "It was backdated to about a month before it was purchased and Hilda's signature was purportedly witnessed by two people."
The prosecution claim Mrs Owen had made it plain on a number of occasions she did not want to make a will.
Mr Joyce said: "The prosecution case is that this defenceless, elderly, disabled woman was killed by him, Mr Smith, and she was killed for her money and her possessions."
Mr Joyce said Smith's former partner Adam Dixon used to help Mrs Owen and her late husband, John, but Smith did not get involved because he "didn't like the smell and state of the house". He later described having to visit Mrs Owen as "a bit of a nuisance", the court heard.
However, Smith had helped Mrs Owen apply for a community care grant in 2006, and also for attendance allowance in his name as the carer, worth £65.25 a week.
He later admitted lying on the claim form for attendance allowance as Mrs Owen's carer, admitting he claimed she was more disabled than she was and he was her carer.
Mr Joyce said: "He knew how frugally Hilda Owen lived and what finance she was receiving and had."
In November 2006, he was said to have contacted a firm of solicitors inquiring about the transfer of her home into her name, the court heard.
He denies murder. The case continues.
