THE STAB wounds suffered by mum-of-five Pennie Davis would not have killed her immediately, a court heard.

Winchester Crown Court heard a statement from pathologist Deborah Cook read out, detailing the 13 stab wounds that killed the supermarket worker from Blackfield.

The 47-year-old was discovered by her husband in a field near Beaulieu, where she had been tending to her horses on September 2, last year.

Her post mortem examination found seven injuries to Pennie's torso, five to her right arm and one to the back of her left hand.

Dr Cook concluded there must have been at least ten strikes with a knife, which would have measured about 3.5cm wide, to cause the 13 wounds.

The murder weapon has never been found.

Pennie's injuries included stab wounds to her liver, a kidney, her lung and two strikes which completely cut through two of her ribs.

In her statement Dr Cook said: “Of the stab wounds to the torso, six are potentially fatal but wound six, involving a large branch within the right lung, would have caused more rapid collapse and death than the other wounds.”

Sobbing could be heard from the public gallery as the pathologist's statement revealed none of the stab wounds would have caused “immediate death”.

She went on to say that the injuries on Pennie's hand and possibly the wounds on her right arm could have been defensive wounds, as she tried to protect herself.

Dr Cook added: “If the knife had a sharp tip then the degree of force used, given slices through two ribs and fracture through a third rib, would rank on a scale of mild, moderate and severe, of at least moderate force.”

Earlier the court heard evidence from Lisa Hartmann, a neighbour of Justin Robertson's friend, Emily James, in The Mill Pond, Holbury.

She told the court Robertson gave her a carrier bag on the evening of the day Pennie was killed, asking her if she could put it in her rubbish.

Knowing he was a drug dealer, she asked if it was anything to do with drugs and she said he replied “no, it's a pair of trainers, girl”.

She told jurors that when she asked him why they couldn't be put in Miss James' rubbish, he said “in case she got raided”.

Two days later the court heard how Robertson's girlfriend Lian Doyle took the trainers out of the rubbish and Mrs Hartmann said she told her that she “had to get rid of them, she had to burn them”.

Her brother-in-law Michael, who has a recovery truck and also lives in The Mill Pond, told the court he was asked to pick up Samantha Maclean's car on September 2, near Beaulieu.

He said Maclean told him she had lost the keys.

The prosecution claim Robertson used Maclean's car to get to Leygreen Farm, but lost the car keys by Pennie's body.

Robertson, 36, of no fixed address, is accused of murdering Pennie, while he, Benjamin Carr, 22, of Edward Road, Shirley, Southampton, and Maclean, 28, of Beech Crescent, Hythe, are all charged with conspiring to kill her. They all deny the charges.

Proceeding.