A HAMPSHIRE grandmother was tortured with a knife and then beaten to death with her marble rolling pin, a court heard.

Georgina Edmonds’ battered body was found face down on her kitchen floor in a pool of blood by her son when he returned home from work.

Winchester Crown Court heard how the businessman had returned to his Brambridge estate and found his mother’s cottage shrouded in darkness late in the afternoon of January 11, 2008.

Concerned, he climbed through a sash window of Fig Tree Cottage and went to the kitchen where he found his 77-year-old mum face down, completely still, “with a very significant pool of blood coming from her head or face”.

Prosecutor Michael Bowes QC, opening the case for the prosecution, said she had been “brutally murdered”.

He said: “Her killer repeatedly stabbed her with a knife in her chest, abdomen, on her neck and on the upper part of her body before beating her to death with her own marble rolling pin.

“Her credit card was stolen along with her handbag, mobile phone and later that evening her killer tried to use her credit card. He failed because he had the incorrect pin number.

“The many knife wounds penetrated Georgina Edmonds’ skin. The patterns suggested they had been delivered with some determination.

“The inference is that she was tortured in order to obtain her pin number and then beaten to death.”

“He saw that her trousers had been pulled down slightly and that on the back of her head there was a significant pinkish dent, as if caused by a huge hit or by several blows in the same place. It was obvious to him that she was dead and that she had been murdered.”

Jurors were told how Mrs Edmonds' dog walker Ian Wrightson who had joined Harry at the cottage, called 999 and paramedics arrived at the scene at 6.20pm.

Paramedic Ian Straughan found Mrs Edmonds' trousers appeared to have been pulled down to her knees.

Mr Bowes said: “She was still wearing underwear but her knickers appeared to have been pulled down partially. Using a defibrillator he found there was no sign of life and so he left her body where she lay.

“The formal cause of death was given as head injuries. What all the evidence establishes is that Georgina Edmonds was repeatedly wounded with a knife and then beaten to death with her marble rolling pin. Given that her credit card was stolen and an unsuccessful attempt was made to use it later that night, it seems likely that she was tortured in order to obtain her credit card pin number.”

Mr Bowes said: “It is the prosecution's case that the person attempting to use Georgina Edmonds' credit card as Matthew Hamlen and that he was the person who murdered Georgina Edmonds.”

Mr Bowes told the jury of seven women and five men that the issue in the case was identity and that some aspects of the trial would be distressing.

The court was told how the marble rolling pin weighed around two kilogrammes and in the opinion of a forensic scientist would make "a very effective blunt instrument type weapon".

Matthew Hamlen, 33, of Hamilton Road, Bishopstoke, denies murder.

Proceeding