A WOMAN has recalled how a distressed child told her that her neighbour was dead.

Margaret Kibuuka, 40, was allegedly bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer and had her throat slit by her husband George, 48, who then stabbed himself and drank a poison potion, a court heard.

Muriel Westerman, who lived three doors down from Margaret, said one of her sons had appeared at her door crying on the Sunday morning. Mrs Westerman said: “As far as I can remember he said ‘somebody has killed my mummy’. I just couldn’t believe it.”

Jurors at Winchester Crown Court heard yesterday how she met another of Margaret’s children as she went to the house, on Richville Road, Shirley.

“I asked him what was happening – all I can remember him saying is ‘why would anyone want to kill my mum and dad?’,” said Mrs Westerman.

Jurors also heard from Michelle Kesby, who was passing on her way to work at Southampton General Hospital on November 8 2009 and offered help.

She had gone upstairs where she said about a metre into the front room that there was blood on the floor, the court heard.

She described a knife lying on the side of the bed and “what appeared to be bodies under a quilt, but it was seconds only that I saw that.”

She added: “I hyperventilated slightly and walked out of the room.”

Kibuuka denies charges of murdering his wife and drugging three of his children.

Proceeding.