A fugitive on the run from a "brutal and frenzied" attack on a mum-of-three, who was stabbed to death in her flat, tricked cops into believing he was his brother before fleeing to the Costa del Sol, a court heard yesterday.
David Baxendale, 40,(pictured) aroused suspicion when shaving his head in a Portsmouth shopping centre toilet the day after 38 year-old Sarah Thomas (pictured) was killed in her Nutfield, Surrey flat.
He initially gave another bogus name to police before convincing them he was his brother, Richard - producing a passport in that name - and hopped on a ferry to St. Malo, France.
Baxendale, of Chequers Lane, Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey was arrested in Fuengirola, near Malaga on June 21, last year and has pleaded not guilty at Guildford Crown Court to murder.
"She was subjected to a brutal and frenzied attack and was stabbed and struck repeatedly," prosecutor Mr. Richard Jory told the court. "The fatal wound was to the neck, severing the carotid artery.
"The prosecution say it was this defendant, who had just met her that same day, who inflicted these injuries and caused her death."
Miss Thomas had returned to her flat in The Spinning Wheel, High Street in a taxi with Baxendale after they had met through friends.
Her worried "on-off" boyfriend found her bloodstained body in the flat at 5:30pm and raised the alarm.
Meanwhile, Baxendale had fled the scene on foot, dumping the murder weapon, which contained traces of his and the victim's blood at the foot of a tree, the jury were told.
He also dashed across the busy M23 motorway in his desperation to escape. "He was narrowly missed by a number of vehicles," said Mr. Jory.
Baxendale also dumped his jacket, stained with his and the victim's blood, in woods and dumped more clothing, including bloodstained trainers near his mother's home.
He was circulated as wanted by Crimestoppers and identified in a nightclub and arrested at 3am.
The trial is expected to last three weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment