A Belfast pensioner, Mr Andrew Spence, who was beaten and tortured in his bedroom, was left with a brown paper bag and a duvet covering his injuries, the city's Crown Court has been told.
Community policeman Mr William Kerr said that when he first found the 78-year-old pensioner at his home in Battenberg Street, off the Shankill Road, two days after his disappearance in January, 1997, all he could see were legs dangling over the end of the bed. He told the murder trial of Mr William Murphy (21) of Batten berg Street, who denies the charge, that the pensioner's head was covered with the corner of a duvet.
Following his arrest, Mr Murphy claimed his finger and palm prints, which were found in the murdered man's home, could have got there when he burgled the house three weeks earlier.