COLE:WOMAN BATTERED 91 YEAR- OLD MAN TO DEATH WITH BOTTLE OF FINE WINE

A woman battered a helpless 91-year-old man to death with a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape after befriending his family, the Old Bailey heard today (Tues).

Widower William Reilly was ‘brutally attacked’ in his bedroom by Melanie Cole, 49, for just a few pounds which he kept in a coat, jurors were told.

Mr Reilly, a father-of-three, suffered multiple skull and facial fractures after being clubbed over the head with a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape wine and a bottle of dry orange curacao liquer.

He was found by his eldest son James sitting on the edge of his bed, covered in blood, four days after Christmas, on December 29 last year.

The pensioner, registered blind and almost completely deaf, died a week later on hospital by inhaling his own vomit, after developing pneumonia.

Cole had previously stolen cash from the old man, who she had met in a pub close to his home in Tottenham, north London, and would turn up announced, the court heard.

Mr Reilly had called her the ‘bottle pincher’ after she had taken a whisky bottle containing loose change from the house, some 18 months before his death.

‘It is the prosecution case he was murdered for money,’ said prosecutor Zoe Johnson.

Mr Reilly, who had retired as a builder aged 78, had between £30 to £80 on him on the day of his death, jurors were told.

He kept his money in the pocket of a jacket in his bedroom, on the ground floor of (55) Tower Gardens, where he had lived with his family since 1977. His wife had died 12 years before he was killed.

The pensioner lived with his son James, also known as Seamus, but was also assisted by carers who visited him three times a day.

Jurors heard Cole, a drug user and alcoholic, was the last person to be seen with Mr Reilly before he was found gravely wounded.

Miss Johnson said she arrived at his house around 5pm asking for a drink and a cigarette, while  he was being visited by a friend Carol Palmer.

She picked out Cole in an ID parade and said she had smelt of alcohol when she arrived.

The court heard James Reilly returned to the house around 6pm with a friend after running several errands to be met with an ‘appalling sight’.

He had thought is unusual that his father’s bedroom door was shut and his walking stick was in the hallway.

Mr Reilly’s usual routine was to sit in the living room listening to the television and he was due to be seen by a carer around 8pm.

‘His father was sitting on the edge of the bed covered in blood and had been badly battered,’ said Miss Johnson.

‘So ferocious had the attack been there was blood on the bed, on the walls and even some spots of blood on the ceiling.

‘James Reilly asked his father what happened and he said “It’s your fault, a white woman has given me a mauling”.’

He later added: ‘A white girl took my money from me.’

Police officers called to the scene were said to be ‘shocked’ by the state of the pensioner’s injuries.

Mr Reilly was rushed to the Royal London hospital, where it was discovered he had multiple skull and facial fractures and a broken jaw.

Over the following days he developed a chest infection and subsequently died. A post mortem gave the cause of death and pneumonia and blunt force traumatic head injury.

A pathologist noted 20 separate injuries to his head and face, which were consistent with at least three blows with a heavy object.

At the scene, police found the wine and spirits bottles were both heavily bloodstained. Scientists also found traces of Cole’s DNA on the liquer bottle.

A full DNA profile was also found on a cigarette end found in the living room and the mouthpiece of an open can of Strongbow cider left in the kitchen, which was also stained with the victim’s blood.

The lining of Mr Reilly’s brown jacket which hung on his zimmer frame had been pulled out and was also bloodstained and the killer had made attempts to clean the blood from their hands in the kitchen sink, it was said.

It is alleged Cole then visited her friend Wendy Turner, still bloodied, and said: ‘I am in trouble. I have got blood all on me.’

She refused to explain what had happened, but muttered ‘what have I done, what have I done.’

She then said: ‘If I get caught for this I will go away for a long time.’

Mrs Turner thought Cole, who then left, was high on drink or drugs.

Cole was arrested  and bailed on January 3 this year. She was then re-arrested after Mr Reilly’s death.

Between the two dates, she again visited Mrs Turner and said: ‘The police have nothing on me.’

The court heard she had met Mr Reilly and his son James at least 18 months previously in the Blue Moon pub, where the elderly man was known to drink at the weekends.

She had at first been invited round to the family house, but was then warned off after being accused of stealing from the pensioner when James was out of the house.

Miss Johnson said she had taken the bottle of loose change on one occasion and then returned on another day and taken around £20 from Mr Reilly.

Cole, of [85] Culford Road, Hackney, east London, denies murder.

The trial continues.

ends