THE man whose job it was to look after the grounds of a Hampshire grandmothers home told a court how he found her body as he returned her dogs from a walk.

Ian Wrightson was employed as estates manager at Kingfisher Lodge in 2008 when Georgina Edmonds was murdered in the kitchen of her cottage.

He told the court how he unlocked the kitchen door and stepped inside in the darkness but could make out something on the floor.

At the other end of the room was Mrs Edmonds son Harry, who had climbed through an unlocked window to get access when he couldn't raise his mother by phone.

Mr Wrightson told how he reached for the light and then saw the 77-year-old lying face down, her hands flat on the floor in front of her, and surrounded by blood.

He said: "I assumed at that stage she had hit something and knocked herself out. Harry seemed to have seen something I didn't, he said 'something isn't right'.

Mr Wrightson told how he called 999 and handed the phone to Harry to speak to operators while he checked for a pulse.

He told the court: "There was no pulse, she was cold."

Mr Wrightson described how "rightly or wrongly" he reached for two towels and placed one over her head and the other over her exposed underwear before he went outside.

The court was told how he had been estates manager for eight years and lived in a section of Kingfisher Lodge with his wife at that time.

Hamlen, 36, denies murder.

Proceeding.