BRITAIN: Relatives of twin sisters murdered by a former binman sobbed uncontrollably yesterday as details of a "macabre and bizarre" sexual attack were recounted to a court in Yorkshire, England.
The horrific details emerged after Mark Hobson (35), pleaded guilty at Leeds Crown Court to murdering his girlfriend Claire Sanderson (27), and her sister Diane, along with pensioners James Britton (80), and his wife Joan (82), in York last summer.
It also emerged that Hobson, of Selby, North Yorkshire, had scribbled the names of other potential victims on a possible hit list.
The court was shown chilling handwritten notes made by Hobson which suggested he had pre-planned the "horrific and chilling" murders and was even planning to kill the twins' parents George and Jackie.
Barrister Paul Worsley, for the prosecution, took the judge through the notes, which were found by investigating detectives.
He said Claire Sanderson was to be used as bait to lure Diane to the house. Hobson had previously told a fellow refuse collector that he had picked the "wrong sister". Diane was then subjected to sustained blows and a "macabre and bizarre" sexual attack. She had been mutilated by being bitten.
The victims' relatives hugged each other in the court's public gallery and cried as they heard that Diane might have been alive during the attacks.
The notes written by Hobson also refer to the twins' parents, Mr Worsley said. He added: "It may refer to a plan to kill George and Jackie in their own home - George in the garage and Jackie in the house."
Mr Worsley showed the judge another note written by Hobson which he described as a "shopping list", written on a bus timetable.
The misspelt list read: "Big bin liners, tape, tie wraps, fly spay, Nutrodol." The prosecutor said the items appeared to refer to the tying up and wrapping of the twins' bodies.
The court was told Mr Sanderson found his daughters' bodies in binbags in the house. In a statement he said: "I went over and grabbed hold of them. I knew at that moment that Claire was inside. I looked back to Diane and I wanted to cuddle her.
"I wanted to take the bag off of her face but something stopped me. At some point I touched Diane on the leg. I don't know what he had done to her. I thought he had raped her. He had taken away her dignity from her.
"She lay there with no clothes and covered in bruises. Diane was lifeless, I knew she was dead."
Mr Worsley said Hobson attacked the Brittons in their own home. After battering Mr Britton with his own walking stick and stabbing him, he then turned on his frail seven-and-a-half-stone wife, Mr Worsley said.
He told the court: "Mrs Britton pushed her little walking frame and with her poor eyesight must have heard noises of the attack on her husband and gone towards it." She was battered and stabbed.
Mr Worsley said Hobson went on the run for a week. After he was arrested, he told officers: "I'm a f****** murderer, aren't I?"
Police took him to hospital where doctors found evidence of self harm. Mr Worsley said he told officers he had taken a cocktail of cocaine, ecstasy, alcohol and cannabis before killing the Brittons and had lost "a day and a half".