‘Yes, I bought a new TV with pensioner’s bank card – but I was horrified to be arrested for her murder’

A woman who went on a £14,000 spending spree with a wealthy recluse’s bank car was ‘horrified’ to be arrested for the pensioner’s murder, a court heard.

Susan Hawkey, 71, was found tied up and strangled under a duvet in her flat in Aylesbury Road, Neasden, northwest London, on 26 September 2022.

Chelsea Grant, 28, and her boyfriend Xyaire Howard, 23, lived nearby and are accused of murdering Ms Hawkey after forcing her to give them her PIN number.

They had targeted Ms Hawkey in a series of street robberies before using her stolen house keys to rob her at her home, it is claimed.

Ms Hawkey was found with her trousers and underwear removed. A used condom containing the couple’s DNA was found by her body.

The court heard Ms Hawkey was a hoarder but had thousands of pounds in the bank.

The pair spent £14,000 of her money and a series of CCTV clips were shown to the Old Bailey jury of the couple blowing her cash.

Mother-of-two Grant admits she was a petty crook who had fraudulently used Ms Hawkey’s bank card.

But she said she had nothing to do with mugging or killing the victim and told how Howard would beat her up and threaten to have her deported back to the Caribbean if she did not do what he said.

Prosecutor Annabel Darlow, KC, accused Grant of being was a ‘greedy and ruthless individual.’

Grant replied: ‘We were greedy as far as the cards were concerned but I wouldn’t describe myself as ruthless.

‘I’ve looked after elderly people and never tied them up or anything or encouraged Xyaire to do that either.

‘When I became aware of what Xyaire was capable of and willing to do I just felt confined to him and the situation.

‘It doesn’t make it right – I should have stopped and should have said something.

‘I didn’t and that’s something I can’t change.’

Grant told the court that she had been seen near Ms Hawkey’s house as Howard had asked her to see if she could smell a body.

Ms Darlow asked why Howard had asked Grant to come.

‘It either stinks or it doesn’t. Why was it you had to go?’ Ms Darlow said.

‘I don’t know, ask him,’ Grant replied.

Grant admitted making searches for ‘if someone is killed do the police tell the bank’ but said she did not know for sure Ms Hawkey was dead.

She said Howard had told her that the smell might be Ms Hawkey or might be ‘a dead animal somewhere in the area.’

‘You knew she’d been killed because you killed her didn’t you?’ Ms Darlow said.

‘No,’ Grant replied.

Grant said: ‘If you tied someone up and they died you probably did kill them you just didn’t mean to.’

‘So if someone ties you up with no food and water and you die is that not murder?’ Ms Darlow asked.

‘I don’t know if tying someone up and leaving them is murderous intent.

‘But I would die and it would have been their fault if I died,’ Grant replied.

Ms Darlow said Grant was worried about the police cancelling the card.

‘I didn’t care about the card. Everything we bought we already had – it wasn’t really a worry for me.’

She said that on 21 September Howard went through her phone and saw she was talking to the father of her child.

She said Howard told her to block him and she said she couldn’t as they had a child together.

‘He said “your daughter’s dad’s a waste man.”

‘I said, bro, you’re a waste man, you told me you tied someone up.

‘Then he hit me and he told me not to say anything like that ever again.

‘Sometime after I went to the toilet and I had spotting.

‘I told him and I sat on the floor, I was crying. He sat next to me and started to cry.

‘He said let me make it up to you, I’m taking you out.

‘I said I don’t feel like going out and he got agitated and said “I’m trying to say sorry init”.

‘We left the house and went to Westfield and when I was there I started to cry and walked away from him.

‘I texted him saying you’ve hit me and I think you’ve killed the baby.’

The couple then spent £94 in the Perfume Shop, £144 in SportsDirect, £139 in John Lewis and £239 on a new TV.

‘Were you pressured to go into SportsDirect?’ Ms Darlow asked.

Grant replied: ‘Yes, I felt pressured and confined to the situation. Earlier that day he had hit me and threatened me so yes I was pressured.’

Ms Darlow said: ‘It’s a fiction you were being pressured to go on a shopping spree to Westfield, isn’t it?

‘Just like it’s a fiction that you were worried about Ms Hawkey because just over 24 hours earlier you’d been standing outside sniffing for the smell of her dead body and this affected you so little that you go and blow large sums of money in Westfield.’

Grant replied: ‘You can’t speak to it Ms Darlow – I’m the only person in the situation, I was pressured and threatened, it’s not justification for continuing, I shouldn’t have.’

Ms Darlow said Grant was ‘casting around trying to blame others’.

But Grant said: ‘When I was arrested for the murder I was absolutely horrified.’

Grant and Howard, of Press Road, Neasden, deny murder.

Grant denies three counts of robbery while Howard denies two and admits one.

They both admit two counts of fraud.

The trial continues.