I TURNED on the lights and she was just lying there, face-down in a large pool of blood.”

This was the horrifying scene which greeted river keeper Ian Wrightston when he found pensioner Georgina Edmonds brutally murdered in her idyllic cottage.

Now 12 months since the killing, and with the murderer still at large, Mr Wrightson has spoken for the first time about the death of the “quite special”

woman he fondly called “Mrs E”, who had been a family friend for more than a decade.

It was on the afternoon of January 11, 2008, as Georgina settled down after making lunch and having her hair done, that she was bludgeoned to death in her kitchen.

Using Mrs Edmonds’ marble rolling pin, the killer rained blows on her head, having stabbed her repeatedly with a kitchen paring knife in what was thought to be a method of torture in order to obtain her PIN for her cash card.

In a calculating move, he then locked her inside her house on the banks of the River Itchen in Brambridge, before fleeing with her handbag containing her purse and mobile phone.

Mr Wrightson, who was so disturbed by what happened he has now left his job and moved away from the area, said it had been a cold and wet winter day that had begun like any other.

Before going shooting in the afternoon, he had taken Mrs Edmonds’ spaniels Amber and Daisy for a walk, as he usually did twice a day.

“I just assumed Mrs E was asleep. The back door was locked, which wasn’t unusual, and the two dogs were barking like mad.

“Normally when they wanted to get out they would come to the back door and scratch but this time they were at the bay window, just desperate to get out. In hindsight, it was a sign, but I didn’t think much of it and I let them out through the cat flap one at a time and took them for a walk.

“Then I went beating. I would go on a Friday, especially during the winter months to make some extra cash, and on that day when I came back it was dark.

“There was nobody here using the river that day, although Mrs E always loved having people around.

“She used to fish a lot herself and in the early days, her husband and his friend got involved with setting up a local club. She was a full supporter of it and liked the fly fishers coming here.”

At around 5.25pm Mr Wrightson returned to his home, situated in the grounds of Kingfisher Lodge, having seen that Mrs Edmonds’ son Harry had returned for the weekend.

Mr Wrightson said: “He called on his mobile. I could hear the crunching of the gravel as he walked across the path. He said he hadn’t been able to raise his mother and the lights were all off. I went straight over there to the back door.

There was no sign of Harry, as he had gone around the back of the cottage and climbed in through her bedroom window. It was pitch black when I opened the door.

“Harry then came in to the kitchen from the other side but realised there was an obstruction.

He didn’t know where the lights were so he asked me to turn them on and there was Mrs E, just lying face down in a very large pool of blood.”

Recalling his horror at what he saw, Mr Wrightson said: “I was hoping she had tripped, as she had a habit of falling. But it was obvious it was serious, so I got my phone and called 999 and handed it to Harry. He immediately said this was a murder. I went over to Mrs E and checked for a pulse, but she was gone. Then I covered her up.”

The disturbing nature of her death has taken its toll on Mr Wrightson and his family.

“For ten years I saw Mrs E every day when I would go and take the dogs for a walk in the morning and night. I would run errands for her and when she was in hospital I used to visit her regularly. I’ve wracked my brains trying to theorise what happened, who might have done it and why. It’s had a huge effect on my family too.”

Talking about how his daughter had got married in the Twyford church where Mrs Edmonds’ funeral later took place, he said: “The highlight of my life and the saddest moment of my life have been in the same place. I had wanted to leave here on a high, to have my own fishery at some point. Now I feel like I’ve been forced out by what has happened. I stuck with it for six months, but it was too much. It knocked my confidence.”

Urging anyone with information about who killed the grandmotherof- two to come forward, Mr Wrightson said: “Mrs E was a lovely woman, quite special, a oneoff.

She adored her grandchildren and was really starting to get great enjoyment out of them.

“She didn’t deserve what happened.”

See today's Daily Echo for more on the Brambridge murder, including an interview with Mrs Edmonds' daughter.