A harmless and eccentric old lady, deaf since chil

A harmless and eccentric old lady, deaf since childhood,
was stripped naked after being brutally kicked, stamped and
battered to death with a plank of wood by a teenager one
cold December night, an Old Bailey jury heard today Monday.

Apprentice motor mechanic Rico Savva, of Redan Terrace,
Brixton, denies murdering harmless and gentle old Alice ‘Peggy’
Holmes, aged about 62, in the playground of Lilford House,
Lilford Road, Brixton.

Mr.

John Bevan, prosecuting, said the victim – one of
the street characters of Brixton – and the defendant lived
close by each other.

She lived in a home for the mentally ill – ‘Fairholme’, in
Kenbury Street, Brixton – where she had been for some years.

‘She was in her sixties, her exact age is not known, and since
childhood she had suffered from schiozoprhenia and was deaf,’
said counsel.

‘She communicated with difficulty but was utterly harmless
and would totter about in the local streets begging for money
or cigarettes by miming to make herself clear.

‘In addition she was a bit vague about dressing – sometimes
putting on top clothes only, but she was by no means a vagrant.

‘
Mr Bevan said: ‘The attack on her was vicious, ferocious,
frenzied and motiveless.

She put up no fight to defend herself,
probably because of the suddenness of the attack and her infirmity.

‘She was hit many times with a piece of wood, which broke –
getting shorter and shorter – and then she was kicked and
stamped on repeatedly.

‘Then she was left naked, so there may be some sort of
sexual element to it.

‘
Mr.

Bevan told the panel of six men and six women jurors
before showing them photographs: ‘This is an unpleasant and
distressing case but you must keep emotions out of your
deliberations altogether.

‘The time for emotion will be after you have delivered your
verdict, one way or the the other.

‘
The murder happened some time after 9pm on December 14 last
year.

Shortly before her death she had been seen outside in the
area by a member of the home care staff as he went off duty and
drove home.

Counsel said soon afterwards two schoolchildren, a brother
and sister, were approached by Savva, who was heavily blood-stained
and asked for help.

He claimed he thought he had just killed a knife-wielding
black mugger who had attacked him.

There were finger marks in blood
on Savva’s face.

‘Savva claimed he had jumped on the black man’s face,’ counsel
continued.

The two helpful youngsters took him to a nearby flat and helped
him clean up.

Afterwards Savva and his cousin went riding on the tubes, which
they often did to relieve their boredom, jurors were told.

It was not until the next day that the battered and naked
body of the elderly woman was found.

Pathologist Frederick Patel gave the cause of death as head
injuries and catalogued the appalling number of them.

She had been bludgeoned with the sharp edge of a three foot
long piece of melamime shelving ‘which was simply whacked against
her repeatedly.

‘
Mr Bevan said: ‘Bits of it broke off until it got shorter and
shorter until the user was left with a little piece.

‘
There were injuries to her her back, buttocks, shoulder, elbow
stomach and breast and bruising and swelling to virtually the whole
of her face, which was also cut and fractured.

Nine of Her ribs were also fractured but the most serious
injuries were to her head, which killed her.

Savva was arrested a month later and on the way to the police
station he had ‘an odd conversation’ with detetctives, said Mr.

Bevan.

‘What do you get for murder?’ he asked, and went on to speculate
with officers how long convicted murderers served.

During 160 pages of interview Savva made no admsissions,
but was ‘less than frank.

‘
When he was asked what he would think if blood found on
his coat and trainers matched the dead woman’s he replied: ‘Well
I’m fucked then, innit?’
Mr Bevan said the evidence against him was that blood on
his clothing could have matched the dead woman’s, or alternatively
that of two in every 15 of the population.

His fingerprints were also found on the murder weapon.

He had also shown another person charms from a bracelet he
said he had taken from the ‘fictitious mugger.

‘
The old lady also had a charm bracelet.

At first he made no mention of the knife-wielding mugger
who he claimed had attacked him, and said he had not been near
the playground for a year – although his prints were on the
piece of wood found at the scene.

Police later established that the story of the black mugger
was a lie.

Mr Bevan said the only evidence of ‘a sexual aspect of the
killer’s behaviour appeared from the undressing of the poor woman
and a swab taken from her breast gave a weak indication of the
presence of saliva.

‘
Counsel told jurors: ‘There is no direct evidence of the
defendant’s guilt.

Noone saw him do it and he has never admitted
doing it.

‘But you have to use your common sense in looking at the
circumstantial evidence.

‘
The trial continues.