Two lovers murdered their Irish landlady in a "gratuitously savage attack" in a bid to get their hands on her £300,000 sterling home, a London court has heard.
Mr Ahmed Al-Haddad (24), and Ms Nimpha Ong, (49), who had recently been given notice to quit, repeatedly punched and stamped on their "frail" 93-year-old victim, it was claimed.
Evidence suggested Mrs Bridget Skehan, who was born in Ireland in 1909 but spent most of her life in England, may also have been strangled.
Once former interior designer Mrs Skehan, lay dead in her living room, she was bundled into an old cardboard television box with her glasses, slippers and broken dentures.
Her makeshift coffin was then topped up with packing foam, swathed in black bin liners and sealed with tape, Inner London Crown Court was told. Shortly afterwards she was carried to an outhouse and covered with more boxes.
Mr Al-Haddad and Ms Ong then allegedly fled the scene. Nine days later, following two missing person reports, police broke into the outbuilding and found Ms Skehan's body.
A murder inquiry began, and the couple, who both deny one count of murder on December 29th, 2002, were tracked down in Surrey.
PA