A MAN is today standing trial for the second time for the murder of a Hampshire grandmother of which he was acquitted.

Matthew Hamlen is in the dock at Winchester Crown Court accused of the killing of 77-year-old Georgina Edmonds at her home in Kiln Lane, Brambridge, in January 2008.

The Daily Echo has been unable to report the charges due to legal restrictions, until now.

Hamlen was previously acquitted of murdering Mrs Edmonds, who was battered to death having previously been repeatedly stabbed in the kitchen of her cottage.

Jurors have been sworn in to try the case and told this is a retrial, with Hamlen previously being found not guilty.

They were told how the law, stopping a person from being tried for a second time for murder, has been abolished by parliament.

The court was told how Mrs Edmonds was found battered to death in the kitchen of her cottage having been hit with a blunt instrument which the prosecution say was a marble rolling pin.

Daily Echo: Matthew Hamlen

Before she died she had been repeatedly knifed.

Prosecutor Michael Bowes QC said it was the crown's case that the pensioner had been tortured by whoever killed her, in order to obtain her cash card PIN.

The jury heard how DNA had been retrieved from the back left sleeve of Mrs Edmonds blouse and a DNA expert has said that the results match the DNA profile of Matthew Hamlen.

The expert said it was 26 million times more likely that the DNA is that of Hamlen than of someone unrelated to him.

Jurors were told how Mrs Edmonds lived alone in Fig Tree Cottage, in the grounds of Kingfisher Lodge which was home to her son Harry Edmonds, his wife and their children.

She had undergone a number of hip replacement operations and was also suffering with osteoporosis so didn't travel far, but remained active walking her two cocker spaniel dogs and driving and shopping locally.

The court heard how the property, on the banks of the river, was bought by Mrs Edmonds late husband in 1971. After he died, she continued to live in the main house until 2001 when she moved across to the cottage feeling the main house was too large for her needs, Mr Bowes said.

The court was shown footage from CCTV cameras of Mrs Edmonds shopping locally two days before she died.

Jurors were shown "distressing" images of how Mrs Edmonds was found as they heard how she was discovered on the evening of Friday January 11.

The court heard how she was found by her son Harry, lying "flat on her face" with a significant pool of blood around her head and a "significant pinkish dent to the back of her head".

Her trousers had been pulled down by around five inches, exposing her pants, Mr Bowes said.

Harry Edmonds had got in to the house, which was in darkness when he returned home that evening, via a sash window. He had used the light from his mobile phone to check and see if his mother was in bed but she was not.

As he opened the door to the kitchen he first saw her legs before seeing the rest of her body on the floor.

Mr Bowes said: "It was obvious to him that she was dead and obvious, really, that she had been murdered."

The court heard how a postmortem was carried out on Mrs Edmonds' body by home office pathologist Dr Hugh White.

He found that the main cause of her death was head injuries but there were also a series of wounds to her head, neck, chest and abdomen as well as her upper back.

Mr Bowes told the court that all of the wounds were inflicted with a knife but only two of them would have caused serious injury.

Images of the pensioners body and the wounds and puncture marks she suffered were shown to the jury in bundles placed before them.

They included a fractured skull and a number of broken ribs.

The court was told how Mrs Edmonds sustained a "number of heavy blunt force impacts" to her head.

An attempt had been made in the hours after her murder to use her bank card at a local cash point which, the prosecution say, is evidence to suggest she had been tortured by whoever stole her card and wanted her PIN.

There was no physical evidence of a sexual assault on Mrs Edmonds, Dr White had found.

The jury was told how Hamlen was arrested more than two years after the murder, in June 2010.

In February 2014, a detailed assessment of forensic evidence was carried out and new testing found DNA from Mrs Edmonds blouse which experts say would be a one in 26 million chance of it belonging to someone other than Matthew Hamlen.

Hamlen denies a charge of murder.

A whispered conversation between Hamlen and his mum while he was being held for the murder of Georgina Edmonds was covertly recorded by police, the court has been told.

Excerpts of their chat were told to jurors by prosecutor Michael Bowes, who claims it was the moment when Hamlen attempted to fix himself an alibi for the hours after the killing.

He told jurors how 36-year-old Hamlen described what was happening to him as a "witch hunt" as he told his mother what he was being asked by detectives.

He went in to tell her "I might have an alibi for it as well" as he described how a friend called Sarah had checked her diary and realised he was at her home that night, with her partner Gary, possibly for a party.

During interviews with police Hamlen denied murdering Mrs Edmonds but said he may have been in the area of her home while walking his dog on the day she was killed.

Completing his opening speech, Mr Bowes told jurors that "the evidence paints a compelling albeit terrible picture".

Proceeding.