ALLEGED murderer Justin Robertson calmly confessed to an acquaintance that he had killed Pennie Davis for £1,500, a court heard.

Frank Carr told the jury yesterday that a joking Robertson admitted his guilt over a cup of tea on a schooner being restored at a Hythe boatyard a week after Pennie was stabbed to death in a paddock near Beaulieu.

Mr Carr, no relation to co-accused Benjamin Carr, said he had gone to the yard to work on the restoration and had been shocked to see Robertson there. "It was unexpected and I was scared. A friend was there and said 'it's alright we have talked him into giving himself up.'"

He said he was alone with Robertson and over a cup of tea and cannabis cigarette they talked about him coming out of prison and getting a job as a bricklayer or a scaffolder. Mr Carr said he had heard the rumours that Robertson had been involved in the killing.

He said: "I was saying the age I am if I had spent time in prison I would be sad about it. I haven't a lot, a couple of ex-wives, four kids, but I have made my own decisions. I have had my time, it is what it is. He said: "Yeah, well I *****ed it now.'

"I hadn't asked for an admission of guilt but that is what it was. I felt scared."

He added that Robertson had described Pennie as a paedophile, and told him she had interfered with Ben Carr while having a relationship with Ben's father Timothy, adding that “Ben had paid him £1,500 to kill her."

Mr Carr said he told Robertson he did not believe him and questioned how could he kill a woman.

Robertson told him 'no, I was calm, I just had a couple of smokes.'

Asked how Robertson could sleep, Mr Carr said: "The first night he saw her face, even with his eyes shut, but that after that he was fine."

Mr Carr told the court he agreed to drop Robertson off at a friend Wayne Archer's house in Cosworth Drive, Hythe, who would accompany him to the police.

Rupert Pardoe QC, defending Robertson, accused Mr Carr of lying, inventing the confession so he would not be charged with harbouring Robertson.

Mr Carr said: "He foisted himself on us. There was no collusion. We had no choice but to help him."

Mr Pardoe said Mr Carr was lying and he could easily have slipped away to call 999 and raise the alarm.

Mr Carr said he later found it difficult to give a statement to the police: "Confiding in the police isn't normal.

"It is called grassing. Going there was very hard. It is a strange feeling and I had to overcome it.

"Confiding in the police is not a reflex.

"I hadn't heard there was a reward. You are the first one to tell me. If a reward exists give it to someone worthy."

Asked why he had gone to the police, Mr Carr said: "She (Pennie) was the mother of five children and killed for whatever reason best known.

"He was callous, he was cold, that is what scared me. How do you do that and just be laughing and joking as if it never happened, just a week on."

Robertson, 36, of no fixed abode, denies murder and conspiracy to kill.

Benjamin Carr, 22, of Edward Road, Shirley, Southampton, denies conspiracy to kill, as does Samantha Maclean, 28, of Beech Crescent, Hythe.

Proceeding