A suicidal psychology student battered a scientist
A suicidal psychology student battered a scientist to death with a rolling pin because he wanted to take someone with him, a court heard today (Mon).
Steven Reid, 34, struck pretty Elizabeth Stacey on the head at least seven times in a laboratory at the university, the jury heard.
He then locked the lab door and fled to Brighton where he was arrested 12 days later, it is alleged.
Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court in central London was told that Reid intended to commit suicide after the attack.
Prosecutor Orlando Pownall told the jury: ‘He said he did not want to die alone and chose Miss Stacey because he wanted to go with someone he liked and respected.
‘He said, to use his words, that she was the only person out of all the people in the office who fitted the bill.
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The court heard how Reid was a research assistant and visiting lecturer studying a Phd in psychology at the University of Westminster in central London.
On November 5 last year he asked technician Miss Stacey, 24, a natural sciences graduate from Christ’s College, Cambridge, to go into the lab where he was working on the pretext that he had a problem with his computer.
Mr Pownall said: ‘As she sat at a desk within that laboratory, the defendant proceeded to beat with her on the head and face with a rolling pin he had acquired the day before.
‘He told police he thought she would fall unconscious and when she didn’t he hit her repeatedly.
‘He then departed from the building leaving Miss Stacey lying fatally wounded on the floor.
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The jury heard that Reid, from Edinburgh, stayed in two hotels in London’s Kings Cross before travelling to Brighton.
He was arrested there living under a false name on November 17 after TV publicity.
Miss Stacey’s body had remained undetected in the room for 24 hours before a colleague made the grisly discovery.
The court heard she was due to meet a friend on the evening of November 5, and police were informed when she didn’t show up.
The following morning a colleague entered the laboratory on the upper fourth floor and found her body.
A post-mortem later showed that she had suffered at least seven blows to the head.
She had not been sexually assaulted.
When Reid was interviewed by police he told them he had initially intended to knock Miss Stacey unconscious with one blow and tape her mouth and nose to suffocate her.
But when she was still awake after the first blow he battered her to death.
Reid also claimed that he intended to take an overdose or slash his wrists after the attack.
Mr Pownall added: ‘The defendant said he was depressed and wanted to take his own life, and because Miss Stacey was kind to him he decided he would kill her before killing himself.
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Reid, of Gloucester Place, Marylebone, who claims he was suffering from an abnormality of mind at the time of the attack, denies murder.
The trial continues.
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